As many BMW owners learned the hard way, enabling CarPlay is something that’s just not possible everywhere around the world. This is the message the German manufacturer itself uses every time a customer reaches out to the company asking for CarPlay in a car that otherwise has everything it needs to run Apple’s system.
But on the other hand, if you get in touch with the right person, enabling CarPlay on certain BMW models, including the i3, is all just a matter of minutes.
This is what this BMW i3 owner did after being told by the dealership it wasn’t possible. And you can see the result in the photo here, as CarPlay running on a widescreen just seems to be a match made in heaven.
The i3 owner, whose goes by the name of tliet on reddit, says they ended up reaching out to someone on eBay to activate CarPlay in their car.
“CarPlay was not possible on my new i3 which was on their lot, my dealership told me. Of course it was, using an eBay vendor,” they say.
Of course, it was all just a matter of time until BMW’s questionable approach towards CarPlay support in its car came under fire, with some blasting the company for its highly-criticized ideas, including charging an annual fee for enabling the system.
“BMW, here's a hint: Tesla surprises their customers with new stuff every once in a while. Maybe you can do the same? One would think they'd get the message by now. But nope, they literally had to get dragged through the mud for a full year before they backtracked on that decision. And why is it possible that eBay is full of people offering widescreen CarPlay on basically any BMW made in the last 4 years when BMW tells me it's not possible to retrofit,” the BMW i3 owner explains.
At first glance, CarPlay is running just fine on the wide screen installed in the i3, but this is also something that Apple deserves to be praised for. Beginning with iOS 13, CarPlay runs much smoother on wide displays, being able to use the entire screen estate to display content like navigation maps.
Of course, it doesn’t necessarily mean everything’s running smoothly for everyone, as CarPlay could sometime fail to properly render certain content on widescreens, albeit this is more likely something that Apple would address with further updates.
This is what this BMW i3 owner did after being told by the dealership it wasn’t possible. And you can see the result in the photo here, as CarPlay running on a widescreen just seems to be a match made in heaven.
The i3 owner, whose goes by the name of tliet on reddit, says they ended up reaching out to someone on eBay to activate CarPlay in their car.
“CarPlay was not possible on my new i3 which was on their lot, my dealership told me. Of course it was, using an eBay vendor,” they say.
Of course, it was all just a matter of time until BMW’s questionable approach towards CarPlay support in its car came under fire, with some blasting the company for its highly-criticized ideas, including charging an annual fee for enabling the system.
“BMW, here's a hint: Tesla surprises their customers with new stuff every once in a while. Maybe you can do the same? One would think they'd get the message by now. But nope, they literally had to get dragged through the mud for a full year before they backtracked on that decision. And why is it possible that eBay is full of people offering widescreen CarPlay on basically any BMW made in the last 4 years when BMW tells me it's not possible to retrofit,” the BMW i3 owner explains.
At first glance, CarPlay is running just fine on the wide screen installed in the i3, but this is also something that Apple deserves to be praised for. Beginning with iOS 13, CarPlay runs much smoother on wide displays, being able to use the entire screen estate to display content like navigation maps.
Of course, it doesn’t necessarily mean everything’s running smoothly for everyone, as CarPlay could sometime fail to properly render certain content on widescreens, albeit this is more likely something that Apple would address with further updates.