Munich/Chicago. At the start of 2017, BMW used its
recently launched 5 Series and BMW Connected Onboard – which made its
debut in the new model – to showcase the potential unlocked by digital
services in the area of personalisation. It represented a major step
towards the goal of an overall digital customer profile, providing a
personalised mobility experience that not only works in a customer’s
own BMW, but also in other models from the brand. This is an important
connectivity goal for the BMW Group. Building on this, the company is
introducing a new era of highly personalised services at the
Innovation Days 2017 event in the form of BMW Connected+.
BMW Connected+ provides a digital bridge between smartphones and
vehicles. It delivers the next level of in-car personalisation and
smartphone content integration on the Control Display. This makes
display and operation in the vehicle simpler than ever. At the same
time, new services are being introduced that aid individual mobility
planning and help users find their way in an ever-more complex world.
For the BMW Group, personalisation is the key to really staying in
tune with the needs of customers and assisting smartphone usage, both
inside and outside the vehicle.
The new services from BMW Connected+.
BMW Connected and ConnectedDrive service
integration has been developed with the BMW driver’s needs in mind.
People want to be productive during their journey, especially business
customers. To this end, BMW Connected’s digital services and
productivity features help drivers to be as efficient as possible with
their daily routines – inside and outside the car – so they can spend
more time enjoying life.
Send my Routes to Car: Route planning using a smartphone is now
easier than ever. After the destination is entered, BMW Connected+
checks whether the car has enough fuel for the journey. If not,
BMW Connected+ suggests a suitable fuel stop along the way, which the
user can simply add to their route. The route can then be transferred
directly to the vehicle. Once in the vehicle, the scheduled stops are
displayed and the route can be initiated with a single click.
Share Live Trip Status: With this new feature, the question “What’s
your ETA” is now a thing of the past. Current location and time of
arrival can be shared by the driver with business partners, friends or
family. The driver can send a link via SMS to the people selected via
Share Live Trip Status at the start of the journey or if there are
delays en route. Using this link will display the user’s current
position on a map, along with the arrival time based on real-time
traffic data. The big advantage here is that everyone is kept up to
date automatically, allowing the driver to stay focused on arriving
safely. There is even an option for those waiting to receive further
SMS updates if there are any changes to the arrival time.
Navigate Door-to-Door: Finding a parking place at the end of a
journey does not always mean arriving at the final destination.
Navigate Door-to-Door is a feature designed to guide users on the
final leg of their journey (Last Mile) and back to their car when they
are ready (First Mile). Once the car is parked, the driver will
receive a message on the car’s display confirming that their
smartphone is now ready to provide directions to continue on foot. At
the same time, BMW Connected+ sends a push notification to the user’s
smartphone to initiate navigation on foot.
If the driver has appointments later in the day, the “Time to Leave
Notification” function familiar from BMW Connected can let them know
the ideal time to set off in order to arrive punctually. This takes
into account the time needed to walk to the BMW and can display
navigation information on a smartphone or smartwatch.
My Destinations: This feature provides rapid access from any
connected device to both contact information in the user’s address
book and the most recently visited destination stored in the
navigation system. This intelligent destination search function is
linked with the user’s contacts, so choosing the next destination is
as simple as entering someone’s name and selecting the associated address.
Thanks to BMW Connected Onboard, BMW Connected+ transforms the user’s
vehicle into a personalised control centre for digital mobility. Once
the driver’s smartphone has seamlessly connected to the car, they can
access selected features via the car’s central display.