BMW ships some cars without Apple Carplay and Android Auto due to semiconductor shortage

Ever since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the automotive industry has suffered one of its hardest hits in recent history. The Industry is still suffering and one of the major reasons for the struggles is the ongoing semiconductor chip shortage.

Recently, it was reported that the German luxury automotive marque BMW has been shipping some of its new vehicles without the functionality for Android Auto, Apple CarPlay, and Wi-Fi after switching chip vendors. The reason for the omittance of these important features has been accredited to the new supplier’s processors requiring a software upgrade to make Android Auto and CarPlay available through the Android / Apple interface.

One of the spokesperson from BMW, Phil Dilanni during an interview with a media outlet said, “The chips built into these cars in the first four months of this year need updated software in order to be fully functional and offer Apple CarPlay/Android Auto and Wi-Fi capability,” Dilanni further added, “Rather than delay production / handover of these cars until work on the software update was completed, we have been delivering the cars to customers with the information that Apple/Android and Wi-Fi will become available via an update by end of June at the latest.” The spokesperson then went on to add that the company will be will starting to roll out an over-the-air (OTA) update to make the features available “in the coming weeks.”

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As of yet, the company has refrained from revealing which models or how many vehicles in total have been affected by this problem but reports have suggested that vehicles with “6P1” in their production code won’t come with Android Auto, Apple CarPlay, or Wi-Fi. It is also still unclear whether the problem only affects the vehicles of a particular area/region or not. Although, according to a news source, drivers in the United States, United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, and France have reported getting their new vehicles without either feature.

In other BMW news, at the most recent edition of the India Art Fair in New Delhi, BMW India unveiled its newest electric product, the i4. The i4 represents the brand’s commitment to a better and cleaner future in India, following the debut of its first electric SUV, the iX. During the i4’s debut, BMW stated that the car will go on sale on May 26, 2022. The i4 will be the BMW Group’s third all-electric car in India, after the introduction of the flagship iX SUV and the Mini Cooper SE hatchback.

The i4 features an exterior design similar to its internal combustion-engined sibling 4 series which the company offers across the globe but not in India. Although, unlike the ICE 4 series which is a two doored sports car, the i4 will be a 5 door sedan. The BMW i4 is based on a flexible vehicle architecture conceived from the outset for a purely electric drive system. The forthcoming model comes with an elegantly sporty design with stretched coupé proportions, a flowing roofline, four doors with frameless windows and a large tailgate.

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