I used to simply say, “Get directions to [name of restaurant, store, etc.]” and a list of matches would appear on the screen, and then I’d touch the one I wanted and away we’d go.
Now when I say, “Get directions to Costco,” iDrive thinks I want to call someone in my contacts with the last name of Costello.
Specifying other destinations the same way results in iDrive guessing that I want to take some other random action, like tune to a different radio station.
Makes no sense.
This is new, sometime in the past ~60 days, and my other BMW with iDrive 6 works like it always has.
Is there a setting I may have inadvertently changed? Other ideas?
Can’t speak to any changes, but perhaps try the keyword of “navigate to ABC”? That’s what I’ve typically used without issue. Odd difference in behavior, though.
Mine does the same thing every once in a while; I know it periodically has a hard time with “Cafe Rio” and “Costco”. Normally I have to say the whole formal name for it to identify “Costco Wholesale/Gasoline”.
I actually had an even simpler question once I thought about it later last evening. ID6 didn’t have remote upgrades from what I recall, so has the affected vehicle gone in for a service appointment recently? If not, I’m barking up the wrong tree.
Only other thought offhand was a microphone that’s starting to go bad, which presumably could be checked by trying some other commands that worked earlier.
Most recent service was in September, routine maintenance at an independent mechanic. The voice commands have definitely worked since then.
Appreciate the suggestions and thoughts. I’ll probably do a drop-in at the BMW dealer when it’s convenient and see if there’s something obvious I’m overlooking – or if they want me to make an appointment for it.
Thinking further on my end since I created the thread, I also had a one-off issue with the instrument cluster.
Beyond the problem that’s obvious in the photo, it was also flickering constantly. Restarting the car resolved this, and there hasn’t been a recurrence.
Seems more like a separate problem than a related one. I haven’t taken the car in for this because the symptom is no longer there.
Is that your 7 with the apartment-sized trunk? What year is it? I’m thinking there’s a chance it could be 3G shutdown effects. BMW already is shutting off some of those services in February for cars with 3G modules. Either they got an early start or the network providers have recently shutdown in your area.
Oh we had that same thing happen once in our instrument cluster! It actually persisted for like two days which was really weird. It eventually fixed itself but I remember thinking how weird it was when my wife came home and was like, “so this happened today…” Never did happen again, though.
I just sent a description of the problem to the BMW Genius email address to see if they have any suggestions before I make an appointment.
Last time I sent in a question about options for adding a spare tire kit, I was directed to my local BMW dealer, who would be “eager to share their knowledge” on the topic.
The dealer had no options for me, which I guess technically counts as knowledge.
The Genius that responded provided some specific suggestions for checking/resetting some options in the iDrive system, which I’ll try when I’m back in town this weekend.
However… I may have just stumbled upon the cause on my own, after a random visit to the myBMW app on my phone.
It looks like one or more subscriptions expired four years after the in-service date, which is when the original factory warranty period ran out.
If true, this would be the second useless answer (out of two) from the Geniuses, which is frustrating because I provided the VIN with my inquiry just in case it was a vehicle-specific issue:
Looks like the navigation system in this one is also designed to render itself useless after 4 years.
A subscription would probably “fix” it, but it feels exceptionally cheap to be nickeled and dimed after four years of ownership on a > $100,000 MSRP car.
If it’s the cost of the data, the car could tether to my $%Y^@W$%YW phone after four years.
This is wild, carplay is wonderful. Granted I wish the bmw integration with Carplay was much better but that’s a topic for another day. Why do you like the Idrive system v. carplay?
