Photo: BMW
As if we didn’t have enough diseases in 2020, BMW cars are now plagued by a major software problem in Korea, with owners in the country complaining of a totally strange error when passing by the Gangwon (officially called Gangwon-do) province.
According to complaints that have been posted all over the web on South Korean social media, cars equipped with BMW iDrive 7 end up malfunctioning due to what’s believed to be a networking issue in the province.
Drivers claim not only that the iDrive system crashes, but also that CarPlay stops working all of a sudden, emergency services are disabled, navigation is no longer available, and systems like auto-braking are turned off.
The owner of a 2020 BMW 530i explains that the iDrive crash typically happens after using CarPlay for a long period of time, with the screen turning black and then rebooting automatically after some 20 seconds.
Oddly enough, BMW has reportedly released what’s being described as “a paid fix,” only that according to complaints posted online, it “only makes the problem worse.”
At first glance, the problem comes down to a corrupted modem that hits a roadblock when it’s close to Gangwon. The issue could be related to the traffic that the modem receives and might be caused by high-frequency low traffic or low-frequency heavy traffic. The modem eventually gets corrupted and is no longer able to handle the data, which leads to a crash of the system.
While software patches could theoretically be enough to address the problem by optimizing the modem settings and eventually set a series of restrictions when the car gets close to the Gangwon area, a full fix could involve replacing this component entirely, especially if it keeps malfunctioning.
Interestingly, one BMW owner says on reddit that they experienced the same problem in their car, only that they live in the United States. The car has already been sent to the dealership, albeit no fix has been provided until now.
BMWs seem to be the only cars affected by what people already refer to as the Gangwon Disease, and the German company is yet to announce a full fix that would bring things back to normal.
Drivers claim not only that the iDrive system crashes, but also that CarPlay stops working all of a sudden, emergency services are disabled, navigation is no longer available, and systems like auto-braking are turned off.
The owner of a 2020 BMW 530i explains that the iDrive crash typically happens after using CarPlay for a long period of time, with the screen turning black and then rebooting automatically after some 20 seconds.
Oddly enough, BMW has reportedly released what’s being described as “a paid fix,” only that according to complaints posted online, it “only makes the problem worse.”
At first glance, the problem comes down to a corrupted modem that hits a roadblock when it’s close to Gangwon. The issue could be related to the traffic that the modem receives and might be caused by high-frequency low traffic or low-frequency heavy traffic. The modem eventually gets corrupted and is no longer able to handle the data, which leads to a crash of the system.
While software patches could theoretically be enough to address the problem by optimizing the modem settings and eventually set a series of restrictions when the car gets close to the Gangwon area, a full fix could involve replacing this component entirely, especially if it keeps malfunctioning.
Interestingly, one BMW owner says on reddit that they experienced the same problem in their car, only that they live in the United States. The car has already been sent to the dealership, albeit no fix has been provided until now.
BMWs seem to be the only cars affected by what people already refer to as the Gangwon Disease, and the German company is yet to announce a full fix that would bring things back to normal.
Google News