Although initial distribution of new TiVo televisions has been delayed, Xperi has announced an expansion of their automotive infotainment solutions by delivering their iconic living room brand into the car. And the company’s first licensee is BMW.
From the press release:
BMW has selected TiVo’s video media platform to provide customers access to a growing number of video content providers, including linear and on demand streaming services. BMW’s implementation of the Powered by TiVo™ platform will include a variety of country-specific content, offering news, movies and access to media libraries. The video media platform is expected to roll out over-the-air in initial launch countries by the end of 2023 for customers of the all-new BMW 5 series and further models.
As BMW iDrive is Android-powered, it’s seems likely that this fork of the TiVo television experience is simply an app that will live alongside other BMW partners — including the also newly announced AirConsole gaming that uses your smartphone as a controller.
With AirConsole, players can play so-called casual games. These are games that are easy to pick up and play and intuitive to control. After starting the AirConsole app in the vehicle, the connection between the smartphone and the vehicle is intuitively established by scanning a QR code on the Curved Display. Then players can get straight down to playing. The AirConsole app supports multiple players simultaneously.
Unfortunately, I won’t be able to easily take either of these for a spin when the time comes, as the only person I knew with a 5 Series has sidegraded to the Tesla Model 3 — featuring a superior display for rendering video content, along with premium streaming services possibly more suitable for this demographic.
Thanks for the heads up Daren!
Here in the US, most of the aggregated services delivered via TiVo app on the TiVo Stream 4K, are similar to what you find on Pluto and Plex. Can’t speak to options in other regions, which may have a more favorable retransmission posture.
I’m not real crazy about proprietary consumer electronics in cars (as opposed to things like electronic ignition and fuel injection). My concern is obsolescence. For example, the recent shutdown of 3G left some vehicle systems inoperative.
My concern here would be what if five years from now Tivo stopped supporting this service three years prior (only a two year run). Where would that leave you and your expensive BMW? Apple and Google will probably carry on with Carplay and AA just for the traffic information alone, but that data from only one relatively marginal car manufacturer won’t be as valuable to Tivo.
Also, unless there are rear monitors, the idea of a video service in a car is rather scary (or unnecessary if properly restricted).
The best use case for this is EVs. We tend to have some time on longer trips if we stop to charge.