BMW will upgrade Idrive

GERMAN CARMAKER BMW will upgrade its Idrive interface by Christmas.

It looks like the BMW Assist feature will be upgraded with a search feature from Google and be able to pick up emails on the run.

BMW has been friendly with Google for years now. It first announced a partnership with the search engine outfit in 2007 at the Frankfurt Auto Show. But we have not seen anything in the way of joint product from the two.

A Beemer owner has to enroll in the BMW Assist Convenience Plan, which costs $199 a year.

In the US the system will use AT&T's GSM network to connect to Google Search to look up business information such as the names of restaurants, hotels, supermarkets and public facilities such as schools or city halls.

Once the system has found what the driver is looking for they will be able to navigate to it or call the business using the system's Bluetooth connectivity.

It means that you will be able to search around the area for the lowest petrol prices or find a shop to bring home flowers to the partner who is particularly miffed at you spending so much time in your car.

The BMW Assist service also offers functions such as remote unlock, automatic collision notification, and location of stolen vehicles.

The new system will be optional on the BMW 1 and 3 Series models and standard on 5, 6 and 7 Series models. µ