One thing is for sure -- you don't need version 12 to have voice activation working. My voice activation works on my early March build car. I'm definitely running some version of 11 right now.

Your dealer may not realize the above and that's why they made that claim that the new cars are coming with 12 since they have voice.

 

I picked up my car on apr 8, and the voice activation has worked with no problems. I think this fix must be specific to Europe.

James

 

Does anyone know when Version 12 is due? I heard September.

 

In March/April, v12 was rumored to be arriving in May...then June was quoted. The Sept. date I think just came up on the forums a couple of weeks ago. That really stinks that some drivers don't have voice control working as it adds a lot to driving pleasure, imo.

Sam

 

My dealer said I'd probably get version 12 in July sometime. I think he said that timeframe based on them getting the software in June and installing it on some other, more problematic cars than mine to see what gets fixed.

Aside from my CPT9000 not being very useable, my other software glitches are tolerable (voice is already working on the version I have currently).

BTW, on the subject of the phone, he said there's a new (improved) eject box that's supposed to fix some issues in addition to the software issues. I'm inclined to agree that the eject box on my car may be bad since my phone rarely syncs with the car and when it does, it acts like the mic is muted and nobody can hear me.

 

Latest rumor from my dealer - you can only change the software 14 times.

The 15th time the engine control units locks itself ( nice bug! ).

Then you have to replace this whole unit. My dealer was told by BMW Sweden or Germany to be very restrictive with software upgrades.

Could you imagine, they have to do all these SW upgrades to fix all the problems and get us customers satisfied. If they can?t get the right SW out in time ( 14 times that is ) they will have to change all these ECU?s.

BIG COST for BMW!!!!

 

My service tech told me that same thing that the control unit can only be programmed so many times and then they have to be replaced.

 

So now BMW is stopping us from having SW upgrades just to save themselves?? <_<

 

I'm sure there's a reason for this, I just can't for the life of me figure out what it is!

I know there are some other issues with certain parts having to be "married" to cars (maybe to prevent thefts/stripping for parts?) What is crazy is that even BMW can't "divorce" the parts once they're married.

This process caused me a problem once when my dealer ordered an electronic part for my E39 (can't remember the part) but they spent all day trying to get it to work with my car. After wasting a day, it was determined that the part had been used by another dealer to troubleshoot a car then returned to stock as new. Obviously, the troubleshooting process at the other dealership caused the part to be permanently linked to the other car. Guess what? After my dealer ordered a second part to try again, wouldn't you know that the same thing happened with the replacement part! The third time was the charm and everything worked fine. In that case, you really can't blame my dealer, they were doing everything right. It's really a flaw in the system that allowed that part to be returned as new without further inspection.

It amazed me that even BMW couldn't initialize the memory of the part so they could use it again! What a waste!

If anyone can explain this seemingly illogical system, I'd love to hear it...

 

I'm new on the website and this is my first post...

I'm in the US military living in Germany. Our US spec 545i 6-speed was built in the 1st week of April but the voice activation works. How can I tell what software version I have?