Global chip shortage is forcing BMW to ship their cars without Android Auto
During the pandemic when many countries were in lockdown, it resulted in a massive backlog of orders that seems to persist even until today, although the more recent lockdowns again over in China are probably not doing companies any favors.
So much so that BMW has announced that in order to prevent their customers from waiting too long for their vehicles, they will be going ahead and shipping out their cars without Android Auto or CarPlay functionality. This seems to have affected customers living in the US, UK, Spain, Italy, and France.
While BMW did not mention which models are affected, it seems that if you ordered one of the company’s cars that has the 6P1 in the production code, it could be one of the affected models. Now, there is some good news because speaking to Automotive News Europe (paywall), the company says that towards the end of June, they will be rolling out a software update to restore features like Android Auto, CarPlay, and WiFi.
BMW is not alone in facing this issue. Other carmakers have also been affected by the global chip shortage and have also been forced to take out certain features in order to ensure that their cars are delivered in a timely manner. We’re sure some users might not be too happy that their vehicles are being shipped without Android Auto or CarPlay, but we suppose having a car to drive is better than nothing.
Source: Android Police