BMW has rolled out this week a new feature in their latest models. The BMW Parking Payments capability is, for now, only available in Germany. The idea of this feature is to book parking spots directly from the convenience of your car. BMW gave us a demo of the app at the Critical TechWorks office in Lisbon, a joint venture between BMW and Portuguese company Critical Software.
Based on its location, the BMW car gets proactive suggestions on the parking spaces available. A pop-up on the iDrive screen will highlight a zone selection. After you click on the Parking Zone option, you will then get a summary of all the parking providers. Next, select your parking option, followed by a screen which will confirm the license plate number, your stored credit card (which can be added via the My BMW App) and, of course, the price.
Speaking of the My BMW App, you can also see all these details through the latest update in the app. Both the app and the iDrive infotainment system come with a parking history option, and downloading or emailing a receipt. How do you end the parking booking? Two options, one of them effortless.
Click the “End Booking” item on the iDrive screen and the parking booking will instantly end. But if you forget to do that each time you drive away, don’t worry, BMW has you covered. As soon as the car leaves the parking location, the booking will automatically end.
BMW says that the Parking Payments feature currently works with certain German providers for outdoor spaces, but they expect to onboard more companies and even indoor garages. Other countries are expected to receive the Parking Payments in the future, but no official timeline has been released.
BMW confirmed that the new feature is also rolled out via over-the-air updates to existing vehicles with iDrive 7 and iDrive 8-powered BMWs. This includes vehicles from production start 7/18 and later. Here is a demo of the BMW Parking Payments:
