BMW Now your BMW can join in the festive celebrations!

Munich. BMW has a very special surprise in store for its drivers as the New Year dawns. Starting on 31 December, an animation can be played in the vehicle display – a New Year’s message accompanied by some fittingly festive music and a stunningly orchestrated ambient lighting sequence.

The New Year Festive Animation will be available (in participating markets) to all customers with suitably equipped vehicles from 1 – 7 January. Starting the car brings up a special banner in the Control Display. Clicking on it then activates the New Year programme, comprising a full-screen festive animation in the Control Display with aptly chosen backing music and an accompanying light show courtesy of the ambient lighting system. Customers also have the option of triggering the New Year greetings sequence manually, either with the help of the BMW Intelligent Personal Assistant – “Hey BMW, Happy New Year” – or by using the app in the Vehicle menu, which will also be available for one week. The New Year banner will appear automatically up to three times on starting the car and will be accessible anytime in the Messages menu following the first activation.

A similar function will be offered for Christmas in selected markets starting on 24 December. In this case, the festive greeting can again be launched via the BMW Intelligent Personal Assistant using the prompt “Hey BMW, Merry Christmas” or the app in the Vehicle menu. In the relevant markets, it will be possible to play the video message in the car over a period of seven days from 24 December. The Christmas animation will not be offered in Germany.

These festive animations will be available in 41 countries worldwide for vehicles fitted with BMW Operating System 7.0 (software status 07/2020 or later).



The BMW Group Digital Innovations team would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Stay healthy everyone and see you in 2021.

Continue reading...

 

[vazirncars]

If they could only focus on making their cars not look like turds, all these distractions wouldn't seem as much of a waste of resources

 

[David Brent]

These have been popping up in my cars over the last week. Annoying, pop-up bollocks. What next, adverts in my car before I start the engine? Why anybody thought this was a good idea is beyond me.

 

[David Brent]

This can be seen for what it is, just a nice greeting and good wishes for the new year through technology, which will surely come out only during those two or three days, no more, no less.

It's annoying. It comes up as a notification on your iDrive. Unless you click on it, you don't know whether it's something important, so you open it whilst you're driving and then it's a distraction (although the video doesn't play until you come to a stop). It was annoying the first time it came up in my X5 wishing me a "happy Christmas". It was bloody infuriating when it popped up for the fourth time wishing me a "happy new year" in my 3 Series Touring.

When it's mass-broadcast to every BMW owner, it ceases to be a personalised greeting. It's viral marketing direct to your car, and it makes me dislike BMW just that little bit more.

 

[A.P.]

Does it add that Lamborghini/Audi V10 sound too from the new year's ad?