The BMW Group has been building companion mobile applications for its entire fleet of BMW and MINI vehicles that integrate advanced location services from mapping company HERE.
The Group is now utilising the latest 4.x HERE SDK (software development kit), which act as universal interfaces with the car, providing information on the vehicle’s status at any time. Depending on the equipment fitted, it also enables remote operation of functions, such as vehicle locating, locking and unlocking of the doors, and monitoring the car’s immediate vicinity (Remote 3D View). Additional functions include sending destination addresses from a smartphone to the vehicle’s navigation system, a clear display of electric charge and vehicle range, and services from Amazon Alexa. The My BMW App and MINI App allow customers to contact their BMW Service Partner directly while receiving detailed overviews of their vehicle’s servicing requirements. The My BMW App and the MINI App make it easy for customers to log-into their vehicles from the current model range with their personal BMW/MINI ID.
The HERE SDK is a set of programming interfaces that gives access to HERE’s portfolio of services, such as in-vehicle navigation, traffic alerts, transit information and fleet management features. HERE says the SDK provides worldwide vector maps in over 190 countries and in 60 languages with optimized map data size to minimise download latency and to provide fast response times while still scaling to a high degree of fidelity. Map customisation tools enable map content manipulation at various levels e.g. highlighting of important objects on a map by changing colours and icons as well as editing dynamic properties of cartography objects such as buildings, roads and land use.
The 4.x version of the HERE SDK is available for native iOS and Android, as well as cross-platform development with Flutter. HERE SDK 4.x comes in four separate editions. The 4.x Explore edition includes support for multiple map view instances, allows for controlling draw order of map layers, 3D camera control and provides an integrated tool chain for map customisation to deliver a personal and branded map experience.
(Picture – HERE)
