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BMW's New iDrive Doesn't Totally Work With Apple CarPlay

Plus everything else you need to know about the future of BMW's in-car tech

BMW Neue Klasse interior
  • BMW's iDrive gets a major overhaul for its next generation of cars.
  • The system has four main components, a major part of which doesn't exactly play nice with CarPlay, a favorite feature among car buyers.
  • Here's everything you need to know about the new system.

BMW's iDrive has been with us since the early 2000s, but it's never gotten an overhaul quite like the one it announced at CES 2025. The new Panoramic iDrive and BMW's operating system X are the future of the brand's infotainment tech, and the automaker will start shipping it all out in new cars by the end of this year. But key features like AppleCarPlay are taking a bit of a back seat.

The new iDrive is made up of four key parts — the panoramic display on the lower part of the windshield, the head-up display, the new steering wheel, and the 17.9-inch center display mounted on the dashboard. BMW confirmed to us that, while the main screen will support Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, the panoramic display and the HUD will not.

BMW Operating System X

The panoramic display (the part that sits on the black band that spans the bottom of the dashboard) has space for up to six widgets that are selected from the main screen. However, the CarPlay apps will not be compatible with what you can see or do with CarPlay if they don't send metadata to iDrive. That means you'll be able to see what song is playing and some album artwork, but other features from CarPlay or Android Auto like native maps, your calendar, apps that help you find chargers for EVs, and others won't show up in the panoramic display. That's largely down to how the display was designed to function, and you should think of it as a mirror for the car's brain, not necessarily another display that can do just anything.

While we call it a display, that's a bit of a misnomer. It's actually created by three small projectors that are embedded in the BMW's dashboard. These projectors are tiny and very difficult to spot without a trained eye. BMW says they were chosen instead of a giant screen because they connect you and the info to the car itself in a more organic way. If that sounds like designer flimflam to you, that's because it is, but that doesn't mean it was easy to do. It's an area of the car that's difficult to get right because engineers had to contend with fog buildup, the effect of direct sunlight on the projectors, compatibility with polarized sunglasses (it is), and all the other challenges of working with an element of the car that has direct contact with the outside world. 

BMW Operating System X

According to BMW, all of these variables and more have all been accounted for and the system works as intended regardless of condition. That said, we haven't gotten out on the road with the new system yet, so we're eager to see if we can flummox it and figure out just how extensive that testing was.