Quote:
Originally Posted by F87source
Quote:
Originally Posted by rkmjr
Yes, that figures! Like I said, BMW (actually most auto manufacturers) do not build in for capabilities which are in their development pipeline with software like the phone companies. You can't tell me BMW was not fully aware that digital keys were "just down the road" and provide for those future capabilities in their hardware. I understand the concept of providing incentive to upgrade their car, but cars are a much bigger item and few people will be able to afford to upgrade their car for a technology software upgrade. To me, to have happy satisfied customers, at least for those who have purchased a car recently as the immediate version (in this case, iDrive 6) would benefit them in the long run MORE than banking on the expectation someone like me can afford to trade their 2018 iDrive 6 vehicle to get the new capability. Not all their BMW faithful customers are that affluent. AND, like I said in previous post, car companies are terrible with regard to technology that is not directly related to performance. IMHO.
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Yeah it would be nice to have more future proofing, but that's not how it is sometimes. Someone will always have to get the short end of the stick. For example touch screen idrive, they knew it was coming but engineering takes time and revisions to work properly. They can't always forsee what hardware will be required to drive software in the future, or how to run wires. Like digital key requires alot better encryption so different hardware is needed. So instead of trying to plan everything for the future and have compatibility issues as a high probability, they just don't bother. It's like saying you know commercialized space travel is going to happen, but how about you build today's rockets with that in mind so we can retrofit our rockets in the future. It's simply too much extra engineering than is required. So it's not logical to have manufacturers always trying to keep a customer happy, otherwise car development would be non existent for 5 year intervals (life cycles) because otherwise someone would get the short end of the stick. Like explain to 2016 owners why they can't get car play. It had to happen eventually but the hardware was so new it didn't have time to trickle down to the 2 series yet. |
Yes, what your saying makes a lot of sense. But "future proofing" to some extent would not be unreasonable. I still believe with some effort on their part towards future proofing their technology to some degree would make a lot of customers happier. I mean wireless connectivity, NFC, touch screens have been around for a while, yet they always seem to be behind. They, as you said "just don't bother". I remember quite sometime ago watching a video about BMW having a guy with his Ph.D. working on various sound "tones". That was all he did. Makes you wonder. Thanks for your input.