2024 BMW iX xDrive50 Lengthy-Time period Evaluate

Welcome again to our month-to-month analysis of simply how nicely my private 2024 BMW iX fares in each day utilization. We’re only a few weeks away from wanting a full year of possession of our SUV, which we leased (sure, with our personal cash) in September 2023. It has been a principally nice year thus far, with just a few points blended with some unexpectedly nice variety and practicality, too.

This time, although, we’ll step away from what’s in my driveway and focus extra on what’s on my cellphone. Each nice automobile wants an app nowadays, and for the iX, that is the My BMW app, which shortly earned a spot on my machine’s dwelling display, which, for the document, is a Samsung Galaxy S23 Extremely.

It is more and more unimaginable to separate the automobile expertise from the app expertise, particularly with EVs. Monitoring charging standing, establishing routines for recharge timing and charges, and preconditioning are important options of an EV app; however, producers are including increasingly more options to drive greater engagement and utilization of their software program, and BMW isn’t any completely different.

The My BMW App

The My BMW app begins off with a visualization of the standing of your automobile, which encouragingly says “All Good” each time I launch the app. It reveals whether or not the automobile is plugged right into a charger, with somewhat visualization if it is really taking up a cost.

There is a fast show that reveals whether or not the automobile is locked; however, from there, you possibly can faucet “Verify Standing” to get particulars like present tire stress (which we have been watching like a hawk after patching our flat) and present mileage, which, as I sort, is simply wanting 10,500 miles. Right here you may as well schedule routine service, of which there’s blissfully nothing due for an additional full year. (And even then, it is only a brake fluid flush.)

You may as well manually set off software program updates after they’re out there. To date, the automobile has downloaded each replace all by its lonesome. As soon as downloaded, the automobile prompts on the touchscreen, asking when it ought to apply the replacement. We have at all times picked random occasions within the wee hours of the morning, which meant we have been by no means caught watching a progress bar after we wished to drive.

Again within the app, carry on scrolling, and also you get to the essential automobile controls: locking and unlocking the automobile, flashing the lights, honking the horn, and enabling local weather management. Of those, the precondition management is the one I’ve used most ceaselessly.

Sadly, that is in all probability essentially the most irritating part of the expertise. I am an enormous fan of getting a wonderfully warmed or cooled automobile once I climb in, particularly after climbing out of a stuffy airplane and staggering my means throughout the airport and into my automobile.

The issue is that the iX actually struggles to keep up information connectivity in parking garages, which has usually left me sitting on a taxiing aircraft refreshing and refreshing the automobile with no preconditioning pleasure.

In these conditions, the app simply says, “One thing went unsuitable.”

Local weather Semi-Management

When it does work, your choices are disappointingly restricted: on or off. You may’t manually configure heated seats or regulate cabin temperature. Thoughts you, having the automobile convey itself to no matter settings I left it on is normally completely acceptable; however, it does appear shocking that the app does not enable extra finite management.

The app will even allow you to open or shut the home windows, however curiously solely while you’re inside a couple of toes of the automobile, making that function of questionable worth.

Subsequent within the app is a bit BMW calls Distant Providers, which incorporates two options: Distant Management Parking and Distant Cameras. The previous function works fairly nicely should you ever end up in a scenario where you wish to park your automobile while you’re not in it.

I’ve by no means discovered myself in this scenario. Nevertheless, I do use the distant digicam function fairly ceaselessly. Right here, you may get a 360-degree, 3D picture of the whole lot occurring across the automobile, plus a shot of the inside as nicely.

It is fascinating to get a photograph of the automobile in situ from wherever you’re on the planet. When you park someplace somewhat shady, or maybe you are a nervous guardian with a child who borrowed the iX, I might see it being way more helpful.

Subsequent is a brief entry that tells you the place the automobile is, adopted by essentially the most useful part of the app: My Journeys. Right here, the My BMW app consists of infinite methods of parsing and monitoring how precisely the automobile is being pushed. Even in the event you overlook to set the in-car journey meters, the app is at all times watching, which sounds ominous but is extremely useful must you occur to be a journalist who must know the effectivity of each important journey.

The one slight frustration right here is that these journeys are saved per driver. Since my spouse and I each have our personal accounts, I cannot see her journeys, and she will be able to’t see mine. Which may be nice if you don’t need your important different to see the place you’ve been motoring; however, information hounds in additional trusting relationships might be pissed off on the incapacity to mingle their driving metrics.

If that is not sufficient information, the app additionally tracks all of the automobile’s charging classes, which is likewise helpful in my line of labor.

Cellular Management

Subsequent is the Car Management Heart, which offers one more view into details about the automobile, together with its VIN and mannequin, adopted by a bit for the automobile settings. These are principally user-related settings, together with managing the automobile’s eSIM for distant information entry and connecting your Amazon account to allow Alexa.

All that’s present in simply the primary of 5 sections within the app. The opposite sections are relatively much less helpful. The second web page is all about mapping, the place you possibly can plan routes, discover chargers, and enter your favourite locations. The third tab is simply BMW promotional materials, which, as I write this, has an industrial that includes golfer Max Homa and his i7, plus a somewhat mini-feature on the upcoming M5 Touring.

The fourth part is extra necessary, BMW Service & Retailer, the place you possibly can have a look at the whole lot out of your automobile’s guarantee to your lively subscriptions. If I wished to pay $25 to have my iX warn me about visitors cameras, that is the place I might do it.

The ultimate web page has extra person settings, which overlap fairly a bit with the sooner account settings.

That is lots of stuff, and whereas it is simple enough to get to essentially the most essential options, I’ve got to say the association is not significantly logical. There are quite a few overlapping, duplicated units of controls. The app appears like a factor that is gaining increasingly more options over time without the builders being given an opportunity to cease and rearrange.

However, that is the way it goes within the wild and understaffed world of app growth. Whereas My BMW does have some frustrations, it is principally a stable bundle, offering good management and perception into the automobile from wherever I’m—as long as the automobile is not buried too deep in a parking garage, not less than.

Coming within the subsequent few months: winter. And a winter tire check, too.

Tim Stevens is a veteran editor, analyst, and professional within the tech and automotive industries. He helmed CNET’s automotive protection for 9 years and acted as Vice President of Content Material. Previous to that, Tim served as Editor-in-Chief at Engadget and even led an earlier life as an Enterprise Software program Architect. Comply with Tim on Twitter at @tim_stevens and catch his Substack.