BMW Online service available with 5, 6 and 7 Series cars
BMW Group today announced the launch of its innovative BMW ConnectedDrive concept in the Middle East, enabling customers, for the first time in the region, to access E-mails while they are in their car.
Available from March, initially in the new 5, 6 and 7 Series, BMW ConnectedDrive offers E-mail services in the car. Users will be able to read and reply to their E-mails using the BMW Online portal, accessed through the BMW Professional Navigation system and built-in car telephone. Messages can be displayed either on the front cockpit navigation screen or rear seats screen.
After inserting their mobile phone chip into the car phone, the E-mail service can be accessed with a local call. Utilising the iDrive controller, fitted to all new 5, 6 and 7 Series cars, customers log on to their personal, unique password-protected BMW Online email account and address book. E-mails from other business or private E-mail accounts can also be forwarded to the users’ BMW Online mail box for reading and answering.
“Another first for BMW, BMW ConnectedDrive is not just some kind of new system, but rather an overriding, all-round and truly convincing concept,” said Robert Bailey-McEwan, Managing Director, BMW Group Middle East. “With BMW ConnectedDrive, BMW is making a significant, far-reaching contribution to the improvement of mobility.
“The concept offers everything required to interconnect the needs of the environment, the optimisation of transport as a whole, the maximisation of safety on the road and that sheer driving pleasure so typical of BMW.
Using their BMW Online login name and password users of the service will also be able to access their BMW Online email account from their business or home computer or mobile phone.
Although the service will initially be limited to the receiving and sending of emails, BMW Group says the service can easily be expanded to include third-party supplied information such as hotel and restaurant guides and news.
Although initially available only in the United Arab Emirates, BMW plans to launch BMW ConnectedDrive and BMW Online in other markets throughout the Middle East.
“We wish to bring the driver out of his isolation, giving him access to all the information he finds important or desirable,” said Bailey-McEwan. “BMW ConnectedDrive, bringing all the necessary systems and features together, is the key to reaching this goal. You might, therefore, say that BMW ConnectedDrive is a kind of virtual co-driver giving the driver the right information, rightly processed at the right time.”
BMW Online was launched in Germany in 2001 and the UK in 2003. The UAE is only the third country in the world to which BMW has introduced BMW Online.
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About ConnectedDrive
Notwithstanding all its technical potentials, BMW ConnectedDrive seeks to achieve a sensible, target-oriented balance, combining the strengths of the driver with those of the car’s technical systems. BMW ConnectedDrive unites all activities within BMW related to the intelligent integration of driver, car and surroundings.
The idea, quite simply, is that each player should make the best possible contribution. While in the past interaction of the driver, the car and the environment was usually left up to the driver himself and his ability to adjust to different situations, BMW ConnectedDrive now opens up new perspectives. The objective is to give the driver as much information as desired and required, providing this information individually and ergonomically for optimum results.
Making life easier and not more difficult through the assistance principle, BMW ConnectedDrive is thus able to support the driver and enhance the overall standard of safety and comfort on the road. The driver nevertheless remains the key factor in all cases, retaining full responsibility for all driving manoeuvres. Precisely this is why all features of BMW ConnectedDrive are merely options made available to the driver, giving him freedom of choice he may use at his discretion.
The bottom line, therefore, is that BMW ConnectedDrive offers an even higher standard of sheer driving pleasure in the ultimate driving machine.
For further information, please contact:
Matt Jones,
Acting Corporate Communications Manager,
BMW Group Middle East,
Tel: + 971 4 3132600;
Fax: + 971 4 3300120
Or,
Malcolm Ward,
MCS/Action,
Tel: +971 4 390 2960;
Fax: +971 4 3908161.
Email: malcolm@mcsaction.com
© Press Release 2004
