BMW roasts Apple CarPlay, claims drivers aren't using it for navigation anymore

BMW has doubled-down on its position of keeping Apple at arm's length when it comes to the in-car experience – at least where navigation is concerned. Calling out the "CarPlay myth", it claims drivers aren't using Apple's systems as much as people think.

It's generally been accepted that Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are the go-to platforms for all your interactions in the car – the place for entertainment, navigation and communication when on the road. With these systems powered by your smartphone, it's easier than ever to get the personalised and familiar experience that you want.

But BMW's senior vice president of UI/UX development, Stephan Durach, claims that the company has data that proves otherwise: "People say they’re driving all around and using CarPlay for navigation. I can tell you, that’s not true," he said in comments reported by BMWBlog.

“We can see what our customers are doing, what kind of controls they’re using, in what of kind of driving conditions they’re using them."

BMW has long gathered anonymised data from its cars, providing a huge dataset on which the comments are founded.

This doesn't mean that drivers aren't using CarPlay, though. In reality, it means that they aren't all using it for navigation purposes: "They started using our own navigation, people still have their phone connected with CarPlay, but only for dedicated use cases," added Durach.

There's a good explanation for this too: not all car functions work with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, so it makes sense that some drivers will choose to use the car's own navigation instead.

For a long time, CarPlay has enjoyed the car's main display, but has often been missing from the driver display, heads-up display and more recently, augmented navigation options.

On some cars, that means that when navigating, the information you want isn't where you want it to be. Yes, you get audio guidance and the moving map on the car's display, but modern cars can do so much more – and this is often beyond the reach of a smartphone-based system.

BMW wants to own the in-car experience and with increased electrification, it wants to make sure that those navigating have a good experience. That includes, for example, the projected range on the maps, highlighted charging stations and so on. Currently, these features aren't available in apps like Google Maps or Waze.

There's also a reluctance to allow BMW customer data to be shared to make these advanced features available through other applications.

While using Apple CarPlay or Android Auto on cars that have a less developed system makes sense, BMW still has broad ambitions to provided increasingly sophisticated navigation solutions, such as Panoramic Vision. This has now made its debut in the BMW iX3, the first of its Neue Klasse models.

Don't think that BMW is opposed to tech or has something against Apple CarPlay: it was one of the first brands to support iPod, the first to offer CarPlay wirelessly, while Apple was first to offer BMW Digital Key for iPhone unlocking.

It's just keen to point out that everyone is happy to use Apple Maps or Google Maps for navigation when the car itself comes with an arguably better solution. Or at least, it should.