So, there's a piece on CNBC this morning about the big cell network providers shutting down their 3G services this year to open up spectrum for the new 5G services. This is going to affect both Connected Driver and BMW Assist Safety plans after Feb 1, 2022. While I'm not particularly happy about it, since we do have other options for some of these features through our cell phones and car apps, I am disappointed about BMW Assist going away because I think that's an important feature; I astill have the text message from them when my wife's car got totaled.
What's really galling, though, is BMW's lack of transparency on which cars are affected. If you read the CNBC article (
3G networks will disappear this year — and that’s bad news for your car. Here’s why), most manufacturers are being very explicit about the affected vehicles.
BMW, on the other hand, says, in part:
- "factory-equipped with 3G telematics devices or retrofitted 2G vehicles will no longer be able to receive anyConnectedDrive/BMW Assist services"
- And, while they appear to be offering some sort of upgrade, "Not all BMW vehicles will be eligible for a technology upgrade. Customers will be notified via email or First-Class Mail about whether their vehicles are eligible for an upgrade or not."
- Further, it appears that even newer cars may be negatively affected, as there's this - "Some vehicles factory-equipped with 4G telematics devices will no longer have access to services that require a voice connection, such as BMW Assist eCall and Concierge Services, but will continue to receive certain ConnectedDrive/BMW Assist services such as Advanced Real-Time Traffic Information, Remote Services and BMW Online, depending on your BMW model."
See the attached PDF for all the details.
This is a big issue for those of us in NA, so I gotta say, "WTF BMW"? They're shutting off important services and we can't even tell whether or not we're affected? We're expected to just sit her in the dark like a bunch of mushrooms while we wait for them to shovel some manure our way? They can't even spin up a website were we can punch in a VIN to see if we have an affected vehicle? I consider this very poor customer support and suggest that we all get on the horn and make our displeasure clear to BMW NA, at least.
