ConnectedDrive

[eNate]

For privacy purposes, you don't care if you're receiving gps signals, just that you're not transmitting your own position...

I can guarantee that Google records your location even if you're out in the boonies, completely out of a cell coverage area.

You can check it yourself if you're an Android user. On a PC:

Google Maps > Menu > Your Timeline

Pick an old location you visited (red dot) where you know you were in a sketchy coverage area (or had to drive through an area of no-coverage to get there).

Clicking the dot will take you to the day you visited that area.

In the bottom right, click on the settings (gear icon) and select "Show Raw Data"

You'll see a consistent trail of GPS bread crumbs right through the spotty or nonexistent cell zones.

My point being, it's not the cell phone transmitting that matters -- it'll buffer and "catch up" at a later time when it's connected. If you want to be invisible, you have to mask the GPS receiver (and actually WiFi and cellular too, unless those location services are user-disabled inside the Android settings) because it uses a combination of sources to determine the device's location).

 

[robthebold]

Wow. I hadn't even thought about the google operating system and what that would do to stalk you. I have to admit I haven't tried using myself. It might be for the best just to take the battery out if you use an android OS device. That has the obvious limitations, of course. A friend of mine does just that, though. A flip phone with no service that he leaves off with the battery removed at home.

 

[vreihen]

The cellular system has to be able to locate even the dumbest flip phone in the USA by law for 911 purposes, so I'd bet that AT&T can find every single i3 in the country by just its 3G radio signal and tower triangulation.....

 

[eNate]

Lol, you know, we're hella off topic!

I'll just add two comments:

- You're right about 911 and location, but Android (my current version 9.0, at least) allows me to shut "ELS" off (ELS or Emergency Location Service can normally override all of my other selections to shut off GPS, Wi-Fi location scanning, and Bluetooth location scanning). So with that service disabled, the only location 911 would get is based off of whatever cellular antenna I'm connected to.

- Just want to disclaim that I have all my location services enabled and I think it's AWESOME that I can see the places I've been, and I reference that data frequently.

 

[Fisher99]

Getting back on topic: What we need are some concrete ideas as to how we can get BMW to fix the darn app so that you can actually DO something useful with it. It's nice that it works for checking the charging status or checking to see if the doors are locked. But we really need it to be able to reliably do things like climatizing the vehicle and setting/modifying departure schedules.

I'm still mystified that a company like BMW is letting this problem continue. But I'm equally mystified as to how to bring it to the attention of the right people at BMW. Maybe it needs a class action lawsuit. But that's not likely to happen.

 

[KrisM]

.......... But we really need it to be able to reliably do things like climatizing the vehicle and setting/modifying departure schedules..............

I can alter the departure settings with my phone, same as the climatizing.

On the startup screen from the app under "remote" I can choose Climatizing now, the car goes then to the temp as setted in the car and under that I can choose and alter the departure time.

Maybe you want it to be more specific as altering the temperature true the app or so ?

 

[eNate]

...we really need it to be able to reliably do things like climatizing the vehicle and setting/modifying departure schedules.

I'm still mystified that a company like BMW is letting this problem continue.

There lies the problem: I *can* do all those functions you list., reliably, within the BMW Connected app. I suspect that for the majority of owners, the app works as intended, and BMW doesn't see the reliability troubles you and others who have posted as a big problem.

I'm unhappy because there's so much more this app could do with EV-specific functions. Maybe, because the app is used across their line, i3 owners are just too small a piece of that pie to deserve this sort of attention.

 

[Fisher99]

Glad it's working for you guys. Didn't work for me for the first month I had the car. Then started working this summer and worked for a couple of months. Now it's back to not allowing me to do anything other than check battery percentage, vehicle location, and position of the door locks. Will not allow climatize, departure time, or door lock/unlock. This seems to be very hit and miss for many of us. All my local BMW dealer can tell me is that this is nothing unusual and there's nothing they can do about it.

So, if it's working for you, congrats! You won the BMW App lottery!

 

[eNate]

So see? See the problem?

Somebody posts "Help, I'm having this problem!" and the accepted replies are:

(a) "Me too! Help!" or
(b) "Here's how to fix it."

I admit, generally it's poor forum etiquette to reply (c) "Well I don't have that problem."

But then it appears everyone is having this problem, that it's widespread. It's probably not representative of what's really occurring.

Why is this important? Because if you assume everyone is having this problem, then it's easy to accept and chalk it up to BMW having a junky service. Throw your hands up.

But if you suspect you're part of a small percentage of owners dealing with this, believing the service works for most everybody else, you may be more insistent that this is something that is expected to work, so make mine work BMW!

So far the tone of this thread is leaning toward the former. Of course I don't know the actual percentage who the app works for. But if you're aware it's reliable for me and many others, maybe that'll shape your (and others) expectations and you'll hold the company accountable to address your specific situation.

I'm not trying to rub your face in it. I probably just jinxed mine!

 

[jadnashuanh]

The app works most of the time for me. I have spotty cellular coverage where my car is parked, so that may be part of the issue. I have found that there were times when I could not get the car to accept a setting of departure time, or climatize now. I've found that sometimes, shutting my phone off, then restarting solved the problem, but not always, implying there may be an issue with the app getting into an internal loop so the path is not properly addressed. IMHO, it should be more robust than it is, but it works most of the time. It usually gets to the point where it has finished its negotiation with the server, and then hangs forever with the sending to car prompt until it either says it fails, or just continues to sit there sending to car forever.

 

[3pete]

But if you're aware it's reliable for me and many others, maybe that'll shape your (and others) expectations and you'll hold the company accountable to address your specific situation.

To be honest, this is the first time I've seen someone say that it works reliably for them on a consistent basis so that is interesting. I'm not sure if it makes me feel better or worse about the situation though. Because BMW's system is so "mysterious black box"-y, there's really no way to know why something failed except for end-user troubleshooting (well, if I set my AT&T phone on the windshield, it still has service, so the car should too...) and in my opinion, that alone is a failure on BMW's part. For instance, I don't have an AT&T phone, so anytime it fails in an area I think it should have service I'm going to blame BMW, not AT&T. And that's the piece I'm not sure BMW gets right now: connected drive (and I guess i3/electric owners in general) are a very small part of their business, but given the direction things are going, it's going to be a much bigger amount, so why not spend the money now to do it right and have an advantage over most your competitors? And as a side-effect, make a bunch of existing i3 owners happy.

Anyway, rant over. The funny thing is, I actually revisited this thread to say that I'm on a roll with 10 consecutive remote commands and have to go all the way back to Dec 12th for a failure. In fact, I only have the one failure in the history the app keeps (back to Nov 26th), so I'm at 21/22 (95%) success rate right now. I could live with that, so I'm kindof hoping BMW has made meaningful improvements in the backend of their system.

 

[mkeaton1967]

Hello—

I have had the same problem for about a year. The ConnectedDrive App will still show me the correct location of my car, whether it’s locked, state of charge, etc. However, for the last year or so I have been unable to send any commands to my car.

I’ve tried using different phones to install the app including trying the app on both an Android and an Apple phone.

I have contacted the dealer twice, they send me to the toll-free number for BMW ConnectedDrive.

I have 4 times contacted BMW ConnectedDrive, they torture me through a series of troubleshooting attempts and then promise me that they will escalate it to a senior technician. I never hear from them again.

I would appreciate it if anyone has found a way to solve this. I also see that several users have discovered a workaround where they reprogram the “panic” function on the remote as a “precondition” command to the car. If anyone has those specific instructions I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks. And, I wish anyone reading this a Very Merry Christmas, a Happy Hanukkah, and a season full of Happiness.

 

[Fisher99]

Can you post the number that you called at BMW for ConnectedDrive? Even if it didn't ultimately provide a solution for you, I've been looking for any way to contact BMW and register my displeasure with the ConnectedDrive service.

As for programming the panic button to "climatize" the car, it's fairly simple. You need an OBD2 dongle and a programming app. I use the Vgate dongle and the BimmerCode app (available for Android and IOS). One of the options in BimmerCode is assigning functions to each of the buttons on the the remote. Easy, peasy.

 

[mkeaton1967]

Thanks Fisher99.

Here is the phone number: 888-333-6118

 

[Fisher99]

Well, it's certainly too early to get excited, but my ConnectedDrive app seems to be working again. The car has been in the BMW shop for the last couple of weeks, and during that time they replaced the Body Domain Controller. I don't know if that had anything to do with it, or whether it was during a reset that they may have performed, but I am now back to being able to climatize the car. Or possibly it's all just part of the random, on-again, off-again, nature of ConnectedDrive.

Fingers crossed. We'll see how long this lasts.

 

[jfran2]

One of the first things anyone with this problem should try is pulling fuse #115 in the fuse panel located under the glove box. Leave it out for a bit, then reinstall. This reboots the cellular system, and has fixed the problem for many people, myself included! My car will now respond to commands for the first time in months!

 

[KrisM]

One of the first things anyone with this problem should try is pulling fuse #115 in the fuse panel located under the glove box. Leave it out for a bit, then reinstall. This reboots the cellular system, and has fixed the problem for many people, myself included! My car will now respond to commands for the first time in months!

Good tip, will write this down if I ever got a problem with it.

 

[Fisher99]

Mine has been working perfectly since they replaced the Body Control Module a few weeks ago. But in thinking about it, it's probably not the new BCM that fixed it. More likely, it's that when they replaced the BCM it did a reset similar to what pulling the fuse would have done. But if it starts failing again I'll definitely try pulling the fuse.

Our temps are in the 20's and 30's and it SURE is nice to be able to remotely climatize!

 

[i3Houston]

One of the first things anyone with this problem should try is pulling fuse #115 in the fuse panel located under the glove box. Leave it out for a bit, then reinstall. This reboots the cellular system, and has fixed the problem for many people, myself included! My car will now respond to commands for the first time in months!

Mine stopped working completely. Is there a video to perform this step.

Ran a search on youtube but nothing.

 

[i3Houston]

One of the first things anyone with this problem should try is pulling fuse #115 in the fuse panel located under the glove box. Leave it out for a bit, then reinstall. This reboots the cellular system, and has fixed the problem for many people, myself included! My car will now respond to commands for the first time in months!

Mine stopped working completely. Is there a video to perform this step.

Ran a search on youtube but nothing.

Disregard -

https://www.carcarekiosk.com/video/2017_BMW_i3_Range_Extender_0.6L_2_Cyl./fuse_interior/replace