Why did my iPhone stop working with my BMW?

[MUSIC] Hey, folks. Cooley here with another one of your emails about high tech cars and modern driving and why it doesn't always work very well. This one comes in from Professor Keith B. in Sacramento, California. He says, I have a 2008 BMW 528i. Initially, I could scroll through my contacts, find a number to call, and call it without trouble. Then my contacts would appear but not consistently. And yesterday, I couldn't get the phone to work at all, even after turning off bluetooth to reintroduce the auto software to my phone. The dealer to me it was Apple's OS upgrades that were causing the problem and that BMW software engineers were working with Apple to resolve the compatibility issue. Any ideas as to a solution? Well, first of all I wonder if any BMW and Apple folks are working on this. I'll tell you why I have encountered this problem all the time, even with brand new cars that have just come in for review. Here's the issue out there we've got two ships in the dark when it comes to car makers And mobile platform makers, they've got their own businesses that turn at different speeds and run in different diameter wheels, if you will. They're not exactly staying in super tight sync as each one does software updates. That may be what's happening in your car, which isn't that old. Then there's the frenemies factor, Even if they were deeply in touch technically, they kinda don't like each other. Carmakers are really in love with the idea that they do great head units even if we don't think so. We just want our phone to show up in the dash. But they look at that and say, wait a minute, that means we're gonna sell one less pricey option. And that would take them out of the future in-car data gold rush. So they stay in the game and aren't exactly in love with Google and Apple nosing into it. Now, Keith, for you in particular, I got a few solutions, they're not great. My first one is to say, look, just go Bluetooth in Siri. Call my mother. Find your contacts via voice and then tell Siri to call the one once you find it. Now, Siri is gonna drive you nuts from time to time doing this. But at least it's all contained in your phone. And then you're only using Bluetooth for the audio to your speakers and no longer for contacts transfer and access to your phone. It sounds like that's where you're breaking down. The other idea is to use car mode. Now on an Apple device, this isn't very satisfying. Their car mode is basically a do not disturb mode when you're driving. And if you have an iPhone 7 or older, running IOS10 or earlier, you can consider a car-mode app, called CarPlay iOS. It's not officially from Apple, but it will give you a carplay interface without connecting it to a car. It requires either a jail break, or you accepting a lower car mode feature set without one. The Android folks within Android auto have a car mode that turns their phone- Into a remarkably good little automotive device that's reshaped for in-car use. But again, not an option for you but for other viewers on android a great option if your car and your phone aren't playing nicely. Then there's also kinda the dark horse. You may have a car and you may have a phone, little be announced to you that use MirrorLink Where you can project your phone's screen in yet another way to your car's dash. Not a lot of cars have it. Most people have never used it or heard of it. And if you really wanna go wild and woolly, go out on Amazon and look for these different screen mirroring adaptors. It will literally cast your phone's screen to your car's dash. I don't have a real good feel about these because of issues with distraction and bad scaling and different screen ratios, but if you're the hobbiest type, it could be kind of fun. Keep those emails coming. I'm here to answer your questions about high tech cars and modern driving. It's cooly@theroadshow.com