UPDATE: BMW has contacted Autoblog to clarify its position. The company says it's in close contact with Apple and currently investigating the technical challenges required to integrate iOS in the Car, but since a final decision had not been made, it was not a part of Apple's announcement. Thus, according to BMW, integration of iOS in the Car in its cars has not been ruled out at all.
This past Monday, Apple announced its new iOS7 operating system at its annual WWDC conference. As part of the presentation, Apple announced plans to integrate iOS services into cars. Apple is working with manufacturers on new infotainment systems that could integrate to iOS devices like the iPhone. For example, an iPhone could be plugged into a car and an optimized, redesigned version of iOS Maps will appear on the car’s built-in display instead of a proprietary GPS system found in many cars today.
During the announcement, Apple flashed a slide showing the manufacturers with which it is working for this type of integration, which included Mercedes, Honda, Nissan, Ferrari, Chevrolet, Infiniti, Kia, Hyundai, Volvo, Acura and Jaguar.
Curiously however, BMW did not appear as one of these manufacturers. It turns out BMW would rather not ditch its own infotainment system (ConnectedDrive/iDrive) or alter its dashboard designs in order integrate iOS services.
As a BMW spokesperson said to
MacNN: "The upshot is that as we have such an advanced multimedia offer that has been in vehicles in various guises for more than a decade, it would not be that straight forward to start changing all of the architecture of a car as has been implied [by Apple]."
Apple hasn't fully struck out with BMW however, as BMW
has recently announced that its 2014 model year vehicles will feature Apple's Siri Eyes Free hands free technology.