sj3

I respectfully disagree with Rudy. Although the lockout feature would be nice to have, like on-star has, the location of my vehicle is no one's business unless I specifically want it to be. E.g. pushing the bmw assist button or requesting the local coppers to activate my lojack. Kudos to BMW for doing it the way they did. IMSHO, they are enlightened, in this respect.

Sam

Rudy

I never said I want to be tracked but if my car is stolen, it would be nice to be able to find it. What I meant when I made the comparison to OnStar was that since BMW Assist can't see the car without the car first initiating contact, some useful features (like remote unlocking or stolen vehicle recovery) are not available.

Maybe I'm more trusting than some but for me I don't fear "big brother" tracking my every move. I'm not sure if it's because I don't think it'll happen or if it's because I don't feel the need to hide from anyone!

Iceman

Rudy, I'm trying to hide every day in my life... but my wife is pretty good in finding me.
And the ability to track the car is also safety relevant. Think about the ultimate horror story... You crash and you are stuck in your car, next to the street in the bushes and you can hear the cars drive by, but nobody is seeing you...
But on the other hand your wife can track your a$$ down at your girlfriend...

sj3

Yup, this is a classic problem, mainly between democrats and republicans, or liberals and conservatives. Rudy said it best: "...BMW Assist can't see the car without the car first initiating contact..." That's exactly how I want it. In the event of a horrific accident and the air bags deploy, the car will initiate contact, like I would want it to do, at least for the first year (not planning to renew!). If Big Brother really wanted to find me, they would have my Lojack activated, but I made the choice to install it. Personally, being able to choose the level of privacy I want is worth giving up remote lockout and I bought my own theft recovery device. I'm now finished talking myself in to a logic hole!

Sam

Rudy

BMW should include the emergency contact (triggered by an airbag deployment) service free of charge. It shouldn't be optional.

Do they offer a delete option for ABS? Of course not. They are committed to safety. If they are going to charge for the Assist "service", they need to add some services and offer the emergency contact option to everyone at no charge!

Iceman

I think when you don't use BMW assist it connects you to 911 in case of an accident or when you press the SOS button.
Therefore, it is free...

sj3

Iceman: I'm pretty sure Rudy's talking about automated notification in the event of airbag deployment. I think you're right though, it does go to 911 if Assist is unsubscribed, but nothing will happen at all if we haven't renewed our Assist subscription. This, I think, is one of Rudy's main issues, i.e. it should be free, independent of our BMW Assist subscription status, to have automated major accident notification. I'm for that! Where's the petition?

Sam

Iceman

I'm pretty sure once your subscription to BMW assist is over, the SOS button will become a 911 button. I would also think that in case of a crash your car will automatically contact 911, even when your BMW assist subscription is over.
If not this is stupid...

Rudy

Sam's got me right. If it only dials 911, it won't be sending them any GPS location information, etc. If I'm unconsious, the 911 guy isn't going to know anything other than someone called them and isn't saying anything...

DaveR

I had the 530 stolen from a valet, and tried to get BMW assist to find the car. The truth is, they can find it, much like OnStar can (they simply dial the phone number of the car and send instructions not to display the fact that the call is in progress then get position data from the car -- OnStar works the same way).

They simply chose not to do that for customers (most likely due to the fact that people don't want to be able to be tracked. The truth is, the capability is there, they are just choosing not to use it) and claim that it's not possible. They do state that they may add this capability in the future -- I bet the software is already there.

I don't want to have my car tracked either, but I don't see how an owner (verified through a password and other personal info) requesting a location is different than the same owner pressing the button inside the car. Now, if law enforcement is allowed to track car without owner's authorization I have a big problem with that.

Thanks,
Dave