19 thoughts on “BMW to charge annual fee for Apple’s CarPlay”

1. Hmmm…
   I’m seeing a pattern here. The remote features in the ConnectedDrive app haven’t worked with my i3 for several months. My subscription is still active. Repeated calls/inquiries to SEVERAL departments result in no adequate response. About ready to bring the attorney in to get their attention…

2. Does Apple charge a yearly fee to these carmakers for CarPlay? Does it require ongoing updates where they’re having to pay devs to do software maintenance?

3. Agreed. I drove a BMW a long time ago, but I’ll never go back. They don’t call BMW break my wallet for nothing

4. I had one long ago too. I was a great machine. But yeah, the service guys worked too hard to monetize me, seemed like.

5. Mine sure did. Now I drive a Lexus and my service advisor is great. Lexus service is, IMO, miles ahead of BMW.

6. I’m kind of hoping Apple will step in and tell automakers to not do this. If BMW gets away with this, it will only be a matter of time before others will follow.

7. I’ll agree with that, though the Lexus people did me the same way, just not as much. I liked the fit & finished of the Lexus better. But frankly I thought the BMW was a better machine, more solid, better handling.

8. I was just reading an Australian review for the 320D where it said you could buy a 12 month subscription initially, but after that the only choices would be for 3 years or a lifetime option.

9. didn’t Audi announce something similar some months ago? also VW was thinking about it because of dev/maintance costs. but as the apple appstore shows: subscriptions are the future. car’s is only a part of it.

10. I’m guessing that this post is getting boring for most but I thought I’d mention that I traded my ‘98 M3 for a ‘05 IS350 (super reliable and decent power) and traded that in for an ‘08 ISF.

    The ISF handles great and is a solid car! I still have it after all these years and it may be the last car I own.

11. A classic example of rent-seeking behavior, extracting extra revenue with no added value. Personally I think Apple should only offer CarPlay to auto manufacturers under terms that prohibit this type of behavior.

    However, this is a very old story, covered right here well over a year ago:

    loopinsight-dot-com/2018/01/17/is-bmw-going-to-make-you-pay-for-apple-carplay-every-year/

12. No, Apple derives no additional post sale revenue from CarPlay.

13. So typical BMW. They don’t cost enough already?

    Also this reminded me of a joke.

    “BMW is pleased to announce that when they introduce self-driving vehicles, they will continue to drive like jerks.”

14. I’ve not had that experience at all. I have owned 3 BMWs over the past 25 years and put over 500,000 miles on them altogether. Performance cars do cost more to maintain. I have an older Porsche that costs me more to maintain. I have never spent anywhere near $300 on an oil change for the BMWs or the Porsche.

15. @Shawn: Did something change? That seems to contradict what you posted in the story from January 2018 (link in a comment below).

16. After surviving the owning of a BMW (and later selling of to the first sucker that said yes) for many years, EVERYTHING about the BMW ownership experience is a big “fuck you”. That is unless you have money to burn and don’t care about $300 oil changes. The only redeeming quality about their cars is that they are fun as hell to drive…when they work.

17. I don’t see the link but this is what Gruber posted: “There are no royalty costs or ongoing costs. The only costs to automakers are those necessary to create the hardware (this includes an authentication chip). No fees, no royalties, no ongoing costs.” https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/01/19/bmw-shitheads

18. loopinsight-dot-com/2018/01/17/is-bmw-going-to-make-you-pay-for-apple-carplay-every-year/

19. Interesting. I wonder what has changed. Thanks for the link.