Photo: BMW
It must have been something of a strange experience for American BMW owners to know that their peers in European countries such as Germany and the UK are enjoying Amazon Alexa on the road, whereas in the United States that was not possible. But that changes as of this week, as the Bavarians are beginning the rollout of a new update for the Operating System 7.
The update will bring the system to version 21-03, and its most important novelty is that it makes the mighty Amazon Alexa available for customers in the U.S. and Canada, but also for the ones in France and Brazil. Until now, this functionality was only available for BMWs sold and driven in Germany, Austria, Great Britain, Spain, and Italy.
Aside from Alexa, BMW is updating the recently launched, cloud-based Maps system to make it a tad more intuitive. The Germans are doing this by bringing back the so-called mask for destination entry—that is the screen where you can type in the country, place, street, and house number.
That might seem a bit old-fashioned, but BMW says the decision was made “by product management and the developers.” The feature was redesigned and made available to users in addition to the one-box search that continues to stay. And so does the input through one's voice using the BMW Intelligent Personal Assistant.
According to the German carmaker, the rollout of the new update begins today, June 1st. It will land first in Germany and later in the rest of the markets. Once all is said and done, the new update would have been distributed to no less than 1.3 million vehicles and over 20 models from the carmaker’s lineup.
You can have a look at all the details of the upgrade in the press release section below.
Aside from Alexa, BMW is updating the recently launched, cloud-based Maps system to make it a tad more intuitive. The Germans are doing this by bringing back the so-called mask for destination entry—that is the screen where you can type in the country, place, street, and house number.
That might seem a bit old-fashioned, but BMW says the decision was made “by product management and the developers.” The feature was redesigned and made available to users in addition to the one-box search that continues to stay. And so does the input through one's voice using the BMW Intelligent Personal Assistant.
According to the German carmaker, the rollout of the new update begins today, June 1st. It will land first in Germany and later in the rest of the markets. Once all is said and done, the new update would have been distributed to no less than 1.3 million vehicles and over 20 models from the carmaker’s lineup.
You can have a look at all the details of the upgrade in the press release section below.
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