So my new i3 finally arrived last night, and after being transported in an open carrier cross country, it needed a wash pretty bad. Couple of thing I learned through this process - the BMW Connect app works differently for i3 (and perhaps i8 cars) than for non-i cars... For my 2015 X5, I can refresh its location at will, and provided that car is not in motion - I will get its current location. For the i3 there is no refresh option! The app updates the car's GPS location on its own rules and it appears that if the car is not turned on, it will assume that the car is still in the same spot. I only got 4 updates through the entire journey, 3 in California when the car was initially loaded, and subsequently moved around on the carrier as other vehicles were being loaded, once in New Mexico (another reshuffle?) and then no updates until the car got unloaded at my house.
As far as transporting the car cross country - I guess it depends on the driver, this guy provided no updates until calling me 2 hrs before the actual arrival to schedule the drop off (8pm on a Saturday night). The car made it undamaged, so it worked out ok, but not having daily updates or real-time tracking in this day and age was a bit frustrating.