New Report Says Apple Was in Talks to Use BMW i3

[epirali]

Interesting rumor.

http://www.macrumors.com/2015/07/24/apple-bmw-i3-platform-car/

 

[jasleinstein]

If one thinks about it, our cars are where we listen to most of our music, make travel decisions, generally sit without doing much else, except driving of course. Apple needs lots of auto experience, especially for connected car. Get into the car business? I can't image. In general its low margins, complex options, lots of customer support. But Tesla has turned things around with a simple, (EVs are simple compared to engine driven cars) and superior design and quality build.

For Apple to work with BMW, the company has to embody some software talent and invest in them. Thats not BMW. In my opinion the software and UX of the car is terrible, BMW online services are far worse. One small example, to simply reset my user account, they needed over one week to do so. In the world of the connected car BMW has so much ground to catchup. In Gear Patrols last connected car report, BMW didn't even make the list of the top seven.

When we were looking at the i3, the sales guy bragged, "yes the entertainment system and iDrive controller (knob) was designed by BMW engineers." I looked at him and replied, "yes it's clear this thing is designed by engineers, not UX people. "

 

[psquare]

Who has decided that the knob is bad UX and a touchscreen (assuming this is what Apple would go for) is good? I'm still very sceptical about touch screens in vehicles and actually think BMW's knob wheel is a good implementation. I more or less use it without taking my eyes off the road, or at least very little. There is also the voice recognition, which I use occasionally (to switch off the main screen at night, for example) and which works well.

Generally, I'm not too sure if we should rely too much on US/Silicon Valley influenced UX. As Jim pointed out in the other thread, German engineers know a thing or 2 about cars, safety and keeping cars roadworthy. It would be easy to plonk in a touch screen and create another petrolhead's wet dream, but they didn't.

 

[spinball]

Apple just wants the manufacturing process. And why wouldn't they start their investigation with the most technologically advanced manufacturing process of any mass production car on the road today?

 

[jasleinstein]

Psquare, I wasn't suggesting a touch screen would be the interface of choice, however with software controlled, drive by wire cars it is the most logical choice. To many voice control is the holly grail of interface. The industry has made great strides in the use of voice, but I think we are years away from complete solutions using voice.
My comment, my opinion, is about BMW's engineers choice for the audio and entertainment design. Having a portion on the knob with three buttons surrounding that, more on buttons on the dash and a third set for audio on the steering wheel is one for the hardest to use systems I have seen.
when we bought the i3 my wife and I had so many questions (we are both tech industry people) we had the dealer genius join us in the car.We quickly figured out we'd leave most things alone. An example, the process to connect a bluetooth phone works in one way, to disconnect is a different convoluted process. Having a volume control on the dash and on the steering wheel?

 

[spinball]

Can you buy a car today that *doesnt* have volume control on both the head unit and the steering wheel?

 

[I33t]

Sometimes, the passenger would like to adjust the volume.

A volume control on the dash and the steering wheel is entirely reasonable.

 

[BoMW]

If Apple had any sense they would adopt iStream, a new concept of car production developed by Gordon Murray.
His T.25 would be a great three seater that apple could improve.