apple car play

[Zwerius]

I was looking for the possibility to install apple car play in my i3 from 2019.So I asked my BMW dealer.
They couldn't do anything, but they pointed me to an aftermarket supplier in my neighbourhood.
This aftermarket supplier, however, tells me (based on the VIN-number of the car), that they don't need to install any extra equipment, but the can do a software install only and then it's all fixed. It will cost me € 250,-
This sounds good to me, but I think it's strange that they can install extra software and the official BMW-dealer can't.
Anyone heard of this possibility of only installing extra software to get apple car play running?

 

[SportsterDriver]

I installed apple car play on a UK 2019 i3 this past weekend. There are two ways to install, one is by USB stick and the other is with a laptop and an Ethernet to ODB2 cable. Which one depends on the version of the idrive. You need a code too. I got the install code and cable from an eBay seller (bhamdiag) and used a PC laptop tethered to my phone to install (it needs to go online to validate the install code), took no more than a few minutes. You also need to check you have a wifi antenna - the combox is under the rear seat the wifi antenna connection is labelled W-LAN, the car I installed it on already had the attena - you can get them on ebay if you need one.

This video shows the process on another model: