BMW Will No Longer Charge a Subscription Fee to Use CarPlay ⇥ autoblog.com

Zac Palmer, Autoblog:

Apple CarPlay in BMW vehicles is finally going to be free. Hallelujah! Autocar reported that BMW is eliminating the subscription charge for folks in the U.K. earlier today, and we just received confirmation from BMW that the change applies to U.S. BMW owners as well.

A BMW spokesperson told us that they “can confirm that this change does also apply to the U.S. market.” When we asked why the sudden change of heart, the same spokesperson sent us this statement: “BMW is always looking to satisfy our customers’ needs and this policy change is intended to provide BMW owners with a better ownership experience.”

BMW was the only carmaker to institute a subscription scheme for CarPlay, claiming that Apple was “changing its fee structure”. No word on whether Apple reversed a decision that, as best as I can tell, never happened.