[Azlar]

Hi All,

I recently bought a showroom model M850i Coupe ( registered as a 20 plate ), only after did I realise it didn't have the driver recorder that was supposed to come with the technology package that the car had as one of the optional extras. I called the dealership and questioned when the car was actually made, turns out it was started in June 2019. Is it possible to get the driver recorder retrofit ?

I also was under the misguided impression it came with remote start so you could warm the engine before using it. Is it possible for this to be fitted too ?

Thanks for any advice.

Phil.

[bloozemanAZ]

First off congrats on the M850i Coupe and you got one of the last 2019 builds (ended in July). Can you post some pics?

In regards to Drive Recorder it surfaced in the 2020 8-series Driving Assistance Package (ZDA) starting with their builds in August of 2019. In theory your June 2019 has all the required cameras but may be missing the sensor to automatically record the 20 seconds pre/post impact. There are a couple of other posts on this and so far everyone with a 2019 has been told it is not possible. From a software standpoint one would think BMW could offer it minus the pre/post impact feature for the 2019s given it is an iDrive app. That said the best bet is for an after market vendor, e.g., BimmerTech (https://www.bimmer-tech.net/) to come up with a solution. I just checked and so far they do not have an offering for it.

As for remote start, on the 2019's it was part of the Comfort Seating Package (ZSB) so if yours does not have that it is not a feature. For the 2020s BMW nuked the Comfort Seating Package in the Coupes/Convertibles and made the features standard but created a different version of the package for the Grand Coupes. I checked BimmerTech for a remote start retro and they do not have a solution for that either.

[Azlar]

Hi Bloozeman,

Thank you for your reply, much appreciated, you have given me more information in a few hours than the dealership has done in 2 weeks.

The driver recorder is lumped into the Technology pack here, this contains, 5AU - Driving assistant professional, 5DN parking assistant plus and 6DR driver recorder. As the dealership charged £2900 ( November 2019 price list ) I thought I had the driver recorder as the previous ( May 2019 ) price list only has 5AU and 5DN listed but is cheaper at £2800.00.

It makes me wonder what else is missing from what I paid for. Below is the original price, also a picture of my car, which I love. I just want what I paid for.

I also told that no UK built car has the remote start feature.

[cfm56d7b]

Azlar, thanks for sharing the pictures. Irrespective of mixture of various options, you have a car with San Marino Blue as an exterior color. This alone makes your car a gem.

There is always an option to install a 2-channel dash cam with a dedicated Cellink NEO battery for extended recording in parking mode and just move on.

Awesome car!

[Ozzie8]

Azlar congratulations on your fantastic new car!! I know you will love it. Go to Milton Keynes - all of those lovely big wide roads and roundabouts - the perfect car for that. BMW does not make it easy in relation to features and options. In Australia BMW packaged virtually all options into the vehicle, so there were only 3 true options to choose from such as the B+W sound system. So I give them a lot of credit for that (although it did push the price up). I'm in a 2019 and don't have the record feature either.

[msm2000uk]

Originally Posted by Azlar

Hi All,

I recently bought a showroom model M850i Coupe ( registered as a 20 plate ), only after did I realise it didn't have the driver recorder that was supposed to come with the technology package that the car had as one of the optional extras. I called the dealership and questioned when the car was actually made, turns out it was started in June 2019. Is it possible to get the driver recorder retrofit ?

I also was under the misguided impression it came with remote start so you could warm the engine before using it. Is it possible for this to be fitted too ?

Thanks for any advice.

Phil.

Hurray - another UK M850i owner!

The Drive Recorder is an oddity as very few cars have it, despite BMW UK stating it comes as part of the Tech Pack.

While I cannot comment on whether it should be there, what I can say is that it cannot be coded in; my coding chap has tried quite a few times, and while Bimmercode thinks it's there, it doesn't show up.

Speaking of coding, Remote Start also cannot be added in the UK.

It's the one option I'd really like, but despite many hours of trying, it simply won't work.

Anyway, on a happier note, great spec on your car!

M

[Azlar]

Hi Both,

Thanks for the information.

I thought about buying Bimmer Code, is this worth it for the M850i as I installed the demo but there doesn't seem a lot of options for our cars.

Thanks,

Phil.

[Ozzie8]

I just bought the bluetooth device and bimmercode. Was able to change everything I needed. There's plenty of functionality available.

[Wolfman64]

Remote start is very useful especially during our icy winters. App also has scheduled remote start.
Strange that this isn’t available in the U.K.
As for the drive recorder; the way it is designed I look at this as an unused novelty.
Great in concept but poorly executed IMO. Unless you can have similar features offered in dash cams with appropriate resolution, this thing makes little sense. Better than nothing but no Tesla Sentry.
Needed: automatic continuous recording, event recording (besides accidents), vehicle details and more than anything great resolution and night sensitivity.

[bloozemanAZ]

Originally Posted by Azlar

Hi Bloozeman,

Thank you for your reply, much appreciated, you have given me more information in a few hours than the dealership has done in 2 weeks.

The driver recorder is lumped into the Technology pack here, this contains, 5AU - Driving assistant professional, 5DN parking assistant plus and 6DR driver recorder. As the dealership charged £2900 ( November 2019 price list ) I thought I had the driver recorder as the previous ( May 2019 ) price list only has 5AU and 5DN listed but is cheaper at £2800.00.

It makes me wonder what else is missing from what I paid for. Below is the original price, also a picture of my car, which I love. I just want what I paid for.

I also told that no UK built car has the remote start feature.

Thanks for the pic and it is indeed a gorgeous San Marino Blue M850i. Apologies as I can only refer to the packages BMW offers here in the US vs. UK specific packages. To that point I just did a build of a 2020 M850i coupe on the UK website and things are drastically different. For example for the UK models there is Premium package that contains items which are all standard on US models minus the Alcantara Anthracite headliner which is a $600 option (and in my 2020 M850i build).

In regards to the Technology Package it appears to be a combo of the US offered Driving Assistance Package (ZDA) and Driving Assistance Professional Package (ZDY) for roughly the same cost. Thus, my question is if your M850i did not come with the Technology Package does it at least have parking sensor controls and a rear-view camera? Regardless without the 3D View that comes with the Technology Package (ZDA for us in the US) Drive Recorder cannot be retrofitted whatsoever.

[bloozemanAZ]

Originally Posted by Wolfman64

Remote start is very useful especially during our icy winters. App also has scheduled remote start.
Strange that this isn’t available in the U.K.
As for the drive recorder; the way it is designed I look at this as an unused novelty.
Great in concept but poorly executed IMO. Unless you can have similar features offered in dash cams with appropriate resolution, this thing makes little sense. Better than nothing but no Tesla Sentry.
Needed: automatic continuous recording, event recording (besides accidents), vehicle details and more than anything great resolution and night sensitivity.

Agreed on not an equivalent to Tesla Sentry but I'm not a dash cam type of guy so it is a welcomed benefit although to your point falls short from several perspectives. I just crawled through the UK build your own configurator and from what I can tell there is no remote start available period in the U.K. Perhaps that has something to do with legislation as when I activated it on my M850i I had to click through the legal statements ironically no differently than Drive Recorder.

[Wolfman64]

Originally Posted by bloozemanAZ

Agreed on not an equivalent to Tesla Sentry but I'm not a dash cam type of guy so it is a welcomed benefit although to your point falls short from several perspectives. I just crawled through the UK build your own configurator and from what I can tell there is no remote start available period in the U.K. Perhaps that has something to do with legislation as when I activated it on my M850i I had to click through the legal statements ironically no differently than Drive Recorder.

Frankly, dash cams are an eyesore to a cars interior but the functionality has its place.
They are helpful in case of accidents, including hit/runs, valet damage, vandalism or potential backup in case of being accused (in error) of speeding/running a red light, etc.

Where we live traffic cameras are not allowed by law but we do have some cops that like to make up arbitrary speeds when stopping people. These cams are instant validators; unless of course you exceeded their estimate

Here is how our setup looks. Not beautiful but not really in the way either.

[msm2000uk]

Originally Posted by Azlar

Hi Both,

Thanks for the information.

I thought about buying Bimmer Code, is this worth it for the M850i as I installed the demo but there doesn't seem a lot of options for our cars.

Thanks,

Phil.

The main things I (my coding person) changed for my UK car, was turning off the automatic Stop/Start, and also allowing the car to start in Sport.

This means that I sometimes get some burble noise, and having been an AMG owner previously, I've been missing the aural excitement of starting the car.

My chap also tried to change the Display Cluster to the M, and subsequently the Alpina, displays - however neither worked properly, so we went back to the original.

I probably wouldn't bother paying for the software myself, but it's a novelty.

M

[Resjudicata]

I use bimmercode and i like it. but you need a pro coder for some expert features.

[bloozemanAZ]

Originally Posted by Wolfman64

Frankly, dash cams are an eyesore to a cars interior but the functionality has its place.
They are helpful in case of accidents, including hit/runs, valet damage, vandalism or potential backup in case of being accused (in error) of speeding/running a red light, etc.

Where we live traffic cameras are not allowed by law but we do have some cops that like to make up arbitrary speeds when stopping people. These cams are instant validators; unless of course you exceeded their estimate

Here is how our setup looks. Not beautiful but not really in the way either.

Looks like your running an Escort for radar detection. What model and how are you dealing with the LIDAR pollution within the cabin generated by the gesture control and driver attention cameras that light up Laser false alerts like a Christmas tree?

[Resjudicata]

Originally Posted by bloozemanAZ

Looks like your running an Escort for radar detection. What model and how are you dealing with the LIDAR pollution within the cabin generated by the gesture control and driver attention cameras that light up Laser false alerts like a Christmas tree?

I've heard that the escort 360 updates over WiFi and has "learnings" that reduce false signals. And the escort live app supposed to help.
But I've never used one.

[redhot47fla]

Originally Posted by bloozemanAZ

Looks like your running an Escort for radar detection. What model and how are you dealing with the LIDAR pollution within the cabin generated by the gesture control and driver attention cameras that light up Laser false alerts like a Christmas tree?

Following...

[Wolfman64]

Originally Posted by bloozemanAZ

Looks like your running an Escort for radar detection. What model and how are you dealing with the LIDAR pollution within the cabin generated by the gesture control and driver attention cameras that light up Laser false alerts like a Christmas tree?

I guess I continue to derail the thread
We use Escort Max 360c detectors which have the wifi firmware update capability.

They are in every car and there is zero difference between them in terms of false alarms so I assume zero impact due to gesture control.
It didn't even make a difference when I had the detector mounted temporarily above the dashboard (before it was wired-in).

[bloozemanAZ]

Originally Posted by Wolfman64

I guess I continue to derail the thread
We use Escort Max 360c detectors which have the wifi firmware update capability.

They are in every car and there is zero difference between them in terms of false alarms so I assume zero impact due to gesture control.
It didn't even make a difference when I had the detector mounted temporarily above the dashboard (before it was wired-in).

Good to know. I've been running Valentine 1's for years and when I first introduced my unit into the M850i it light up with false laser alerts due to the gesture controls so I had to disable laser all together. The new Gen2 I received a few weeks back does not have the same issue so I'm now a happy camper.

Since the thread is now officially hijacked for any of those out there considering a radar detector the following video from Vortex covers the top 4 on the market as well as the pros/cons for each unit.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgL...3XgAeLrEYp51sw

[likegadgets]

FWIW: I ran into the following article about potential paid downloads for drive recorder with properly equipped vehicles. This article is form an Australia web site. Can't find any reference if and when this can be done is the US.

https://www.carsguide.com.au/car-new...chnology-77620

[bloozemanAZ]

Originally Posted by likegadgets

FWIW: I ran into the following article about potential paid downloads for drive recorder with properly equipped vehicles. This article is form an Australia web site. Can't find any reference if and when this can be done is the US.

https://www.carsguide.com.au/car-new...chnology-77620

The interesting part of the article is "It is available in the 3 Series, 7 Series, 8 Series (all from July 2019 onwards) and the X5, X6 and X7 (from August 2019)". From my understanding it was a 2020 only feature and hence an August 2019 build or later. However, apparently it was included in the July builds of the called out models.

The answer for the US is to log into the ConnectedDrive portal and subscribe to the service which will download it to the car. For the 8-series all ConnectedDrive apps are subscribed by default. My October 2019 build had it included in the apps from day 1. For those in the grey area of a July 2019 build it may take an action to get it activated.

[J400uk]

I added Drive Recorder to mine recently!

I was in a similar position to the OP, bought my car from the dealership on the assumption the Technology Package would’ve meant it’s included. However the car is a March 2019 build so although it was registered much later it didn’t have it installed.

The Drive Recorder App popped up on the Connected Drive store for me last month so I’ve been able to now add it on. It cost £199 but there was also the option for a £15/month subscription version.

Seems to work spot on so far and behaves just the same as all the YouTube vids I’d seen. Very cool to have it all built in rather than needing to install a third party dash cam