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BMW to Sell New Cars Without Touchscreens Due to the Chip Crisis

It’s not a secret that the global lack of chips has hit the automotive industry quite hard, and carmakers out there have turned to all kinds of unprecedented measures to deal with the resulting disruptions.
BMW offering a $500 credit on the car's MSRP 16 photos
Photo: BMW
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In many cases, these measures came down to temporary production halts, but several companies just wanted to keep the assembly lines rolling and eventually decided to ship cars without certain systems.

BMW is the latest high-profile name to do this, as the company is now selling a series of new models without touch support, all in an attempt to reduce the number of chips it uses on cars.

According to a recent Bimmerfest post, the BMW 3 Series, 4 Series (except for the i4 EV), X5, X6, X7, and Z4 all will come without touch support.

If you’re the kind of person who hates fingerprints on the screen, that’s pretty good news, but otherwise, this is quite a shortcoming given touch is one of the most common input methods these days. BMW, too, knows this, so the company is offering a $500 credit on each car’s MSRP.

The affected vehicles will carry the option code 6UY, which reads deletion of touchscreen, on their window stickers. On the other hand, the rest of the functionality bundled with the head unit, including the support for Android Auto and CarPlay, will continue to be offered, only that drivers will have to interact with them using other methods, such as the control knob or with voice commands.

There’s something else that’s getting the ax on these BMWs due to the lack of chips. If the customer ordered the Parking Assistant Package, the aforementioned models are also losing the Backup Assistant pretty much because of the same reason.

BMW cars without touch support will be manufactured at the Spartanburg plant and started shipping this week. BMW says all cars will be provided with a software update before they are delivered to customers.
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About the author: Bogdan Popa
Bogdan Popa profile photo

Bogdan keeps an eye on how technology is taking over the car world. His long-term goals are buying an 18-wheeler because he needs more space for his kid’s toys, and convincing Google and Apple that Android Auto and CarPlay deserve at least as much attention as their phones.
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