I’m going to beg to differ that the BMW Connected Drive app “works well”. I’ve had a 2014 and now 2017 i3 and the app is one of the worst things about the car. It is slow as molasses to send commands and it fails probably 30% of the time.
Check out the App Store reviews sometime on Connected Drive for a good laugh at how far behind BMW is in this area. The Chevy app is far more reliable and the Tesla app is lightyears better than both in reliability and responsiveness from the car. I’ve leased a 2017 and a 2015 Chevy at one point so I’m very familiar with all 3 brands.
My Connected Drive app has been failing to activate climate control
for 2 months straight. After trying to figure it out through forums and troubleshooting I finally called BMW support and they said they had known server issues for months and they have no ETA on a resolution! They also will not inform any customers A) there’s a problem or B) when it’s fixed. They suggested I could call back some random time in the future and maybe they’d have more info. How’s that for luxury?
BMW is so stuck in the ICE world that app doesn’t even display a remaining time when the car is charging. After it takes it’s sweet time to refresh for 30-60 seconds, it shows a plug and that’s it. They are completely lost in the woods when it comes to software, at least for EVs.
Not that I’m bitter about it.