Welcome again to our month-to-month analysis of simply how properly my private 2024 BMW iX fares in each day utilization. We’re just some weeks wanting a full yr of possession of our SUV, which we leased (sure, with our personal cash) in September 2023. It has been a largely nice yr to date, with only some points blended with some unexpectedly nice vary and practicality, too.
This time, although, we’ll step away from what’s in my driveway and focus extra on what’s on my cellphone. Each nice automotive wants an app lately, and for the iX, that is the My BMW app, which shortly earned a spot on my gadget’s residence display, which, for the file, is a Samsung Galaxy S23 Extremely.
It is more and more inconceivable to separate the automotive expertise from the app expertise, particularly with EVs. Monitoring charging standing, establishing routines for recharge timing and charges, and preconditioning are a very powerful options of an EV app, however producers are including increasingly more options to drive greater engagement and utilization of their software program, and BMW is not any completely different.
2024 BMW iX Lengthy Time period Replace
The My BMW App
The My BMW app begins off with a visualization of the standing of your automotive, which encouragingly says “All Good” each time I launch the app. It exhibits whether or not the automotive is plugged right into a charger, with a bit visualization if it is really taking up a cost.
There is a fast show that exhibits whether or not the automotive is locked, however from there, you’ll be able to faucet “Examine Standing” to get particulars like present tire strain (which we have been watching like a hawk after patching our flat) and present mileage, which as I kind that is simply wanting 10,500 miles. Right here you too can schedule routine service, of which there’s blissfully nothing due for an additional full yr. (And even then, it is only a brake fluid flush.)
You can too manually set off software program updates once they’re out there. To this point, the automotive has downloaded each replace all by its lonesome. As soon as downloaded, the automotive prompts on the touchscreen, asking when it ought to apply the replace. We have at all times picked random occasions within the wee hours of the morning, which meant we have been by no means caught watching a progress bar after we needed to drive.
Again within the app, carry on scrolling, and also you get to the essential automotive controls: locking and unlocking the automotive, flashing the lights, honking the horn, and enabling local weather management. Of those, the precondition management is the one I’ve used most regularly.
Sadly, that is in all probability probably the most irritating a part of the expertise. I am an enormous fan of getting a superbly warmed or cooled automotive once I climb in, particularly after climbing out of a stuffy airplane and staggering my approach throughout the airport and into my automotive.
The issue is that the iX actually struggles to keep up information connectivity in parking garages, which has typically left me sitting on a taxiing airplane refreshing and refreshing the automotive with no preconditioning pleasure.
In these conditions, the app simply says, “One thing went flawed.”
Local weather Semi-Management
When it does work, your choices are disappointingly restricted: On or off. You may’t manually configure heated seats or regulate cabin temperature. Thoughts you, having the automotive deliver itself to no matter settings I left it on is often completely acceptable, but it surely does appear shocking that the app would not enable extra finite management.
The app can even allow you to open or shut the home windows, however curiously solely if you’re inside a couple of toes of the automotive, making that characteristic of questionable worth.
Subsequent within the app is a piece BMW calls Distant Providers, which incorporates two options: Distant Management Parking and Distant Cameras. The previous characteristic works fairly properly must you ever end up in a scenario the place you need to park your automotive if you’re not in it.
I’ve by no means discovered myself on this scenario. Nonetheless, I do use the distant digital camera characteristic fairly regularly. Right here, you may get a 360-degree, 3D picture of all the things happening across the automotive, plus a shot of the inside as properly.
It is fascinating to get a photograph of the automotive in situ from wherever you’re on this planet. When you park someplace a bit shady, or maybe you are a nervous dad or mum with a child who borrowed the iX, I might see it being much more helpful.
Subsequent is a brief entry that tells you the place the automotive is, adopted by probably the most useful a part of the app: My Journeys. Right here the My BMW app consists of countless methods of parsing and monitoring how precisely the automotive is being pushed. Even if you happen to neglect to set the in-car journey meters, the app is at all times watching, which sounds ominous however is extremely useful must you occur to be a journalist who must know the effectivity of each important journey.
The one slight frustration right here is that these journeys are saved per driver. Since my spouse and I each have our personal accounts, I am unable to see her journeys, and she will be able to’t see mine. That could be nice if you don’t need your important different to see the place you have been motoring, however information hounds in additional trusting relationships can be pissed off on the lack of ability to mingle their driving metrics.
If that is not sufficient information, the app additionally tracks all of the automotive’s charging classes, which is likewise helpful in my line of labor.
Cellular Management
Subsequent is the Automobile Management Middle, which supplies yet one more view into details about the automotive, together with its VIN and mannequin, adopted by a piece for the automobile settings. These are largely user-related settings, together with managing the automotive’s eSIM for distant information entry and connecting your Amazon account to allow Alexa.
All that’s present in simply the primary of 5 sections within the app. The opposite sections are quite much less helpful. The second web page is all about mapping, the place you’ll be able to plan routes, discover chargers, and enter your favourite locations. The third tab is simply BMW promotional materials, which, as I write this, has a industrial that includes golfer Max Homa and his i7, plus a bit mini-feature on the upcoming M5 Touring.
The fourth part is extra vital, BMW Service & Retailer, the place you’ll be able to take a look at all the things out of your automotive’s guarantee to your energetic subscriptions. If I needed to pay $25 to have my iX warn me about site visitors cameras, that is the place I might do it.
The ultimate web page has extra consumer settings, which overlap fairly a bit with the sooner account settings.
That is a variety of stuff, and whereas it is easy sufficient to get to probably the most crucial options, I’ve to say the association is not significantly logical. There are quite a few overlapping, duplicated units of controls. The app appears like a factor that is gained increasingly more options through the years with out the builders being given an opportunity to cease and rearrange.
InsideEVs
However that is the way it goes within the wild and understaffed world of app improvement. Whereas My BMW does have some frustrations, it is largely a stable bundle, offering good management and perception into the automotive from wherever I’m—as long as the automotive is not buried too deep in a parking storage, at the very least.
Coming within the subsequent few months: winter. And a winter tire check, too.
Tim Stevens is a veteran editor, analyst, and skilled within the tech and automotive industries. He helmed CNET’s automotive protection for 9 years and acted as Vice President of Content material. Previous to that, Tim served as Editor-in-Chief at Engadget and even led a earlier life as an Enterprise Software program Architect. Comply with Tim on Twitter at @tim_stevens and catch his Substack.