[Flummox]

I was looking through the summary of my 50e build and saw this disclaimer for the Driving Assistance Pro Package:

“Included in this package is the Highway Assistant feature which is provided for the first 8 years after vehicle sale. The feature will disable after that time.”

I’ve never heard of a non-subscription feature being sunsetted like this. Does anyone know what this is all about?

[bloozemanAZ]

Originally Posted by Flummox

I was looking through the summary of my 50e build and saw this disclaimer for the Driving Assistance Pro Package:

“Included in this package is the Highway Assistant feature which is provided for the first 8 years after vehicle sale. The feature will disable after that time.”

I’ve never heard of a non-subscription feature being sunsetted like this. Does anyone know what this is all about?

That is odd as with iD7 DAP and DAP+ (hands free under 40 MPH once triggered in stop/go traffic) is not a subscription. That said I just checked connected drive subscriptions on the wife's LCI 40i and to my surprise highway assist is listed. Which at least with its in-service date of this August tracks to the 8 years. Honestly, even if it dies the car will still have DAP/DAP+ so no loss whatsoever.

[eluded]

I asked the dealer about this and they said they had no idea. I figure BMW doesn’t trust their sensors after eight years or disabling for liability reasons.

[Rob_G77]

Originally Posted by eluded

I asked the dealer about this and they said they had no idea. I figure BMW doesn’t trust their sensors after eight years or disabling for liability reasons.

I think Highway Assist is an absolute gimmick. It's really just a version of driver assist where you now don't have to touch the wheel. Otherwise it's the same exact thing as driver assist. It's no big deal to have a relaxed hand lightly touching the bottom of the wheel as you drive. So after 8 years, no big loss I say.

99% of the highways where I live don't even support HA yet. The very short one that does, I actually wouldn't trust driving completely hands free on.

Rob

[apw2607]

Originally Posted by Flummox

I was looking through the summary of my 50e build and saw this disclaimer for the Driving Assistance Pro Package:

“Included in this package is the Highway Assistant feature which is provided for the first 8 years after vehicle sale. The feature will disable after that time.”

I’ve never heard of a non-subscription feature being sunsetted like this. Does anyone know what this is all about?

BMW made it clear from the beginning this feature was time dependent and they have the right to turn it off or remove it at anytime.

Thats why the car has to authenticate with BMW servers to enable the feature to begin with. It periodically does this too.

The system is also dependent on a special version of the map data.

[cobramite]

Originally Posted by Rob_G77

I think Highway Assist is an absolute gimmick. It's really just a version of driver assist where you now don't have to touch the wheel. Otherwise it's the same exact thing as driver assist. It's no big deal to have a relaxed hand lightly touching the bottom of the wheel as you drive. So after 8 years, no big loss I say.

99% of the highways where I live don't even support HA yet. The very short one that does, I actually wouldn't trust driving completely hands free on.

Rob

Yep, that makes two of us. If my desk top computer can lock up and take a crap then so can this whiz bang driving stuff.

[fate9834]

Shocking... yet another reason to get a pre-LCI

[lackland]

I asked my dealer about this expiration date. The rep said some of the necessary software or data is from a third party. BMW cut a deal for eight years. He speculated that by then there may be better data or whatever from a different provider, or a better deal for BMW, or the provider may have expired along with its data, this being an early phase in the evolutions of autonomous software.

Seems logical. The autonomous features apparently require very precise mapping and updating of eligible highways. Unless BMW directly commits itself to running mapping cars and collating government data in perpetuity, there has to be a time limit.