BMW vehicles will not support iOS in the Car anytime soon, a spokesperson for the company says. “The upshot is that as we have such an advanced multimedia offer that has been in vehicles in various guises for more than a decade, it would not be that straight forward to start changing all of the architecture of a car as has been implied [by Apple],” the spokesperson explained, adding that the process of integrating iOS into a dashboard is “not as simple as it sounds.”
As a result, BMW will stick to its iDrive and ConnectedDrive interfaces for the foreseeable future. The spokesperson in fact argues that iOS in the Car is unlikely to become widespread for some time, since carmakers have to plan their dashboard interfaces years in advance of actually manufacturing a vehicle.
BMW is however offering some support for iOS in the near term. The company recently announced that all of its 2014 cars will support Siri Eyes Free, letting people control an iPhone without having to reach over to the phone itself.
