What BMW has up its sleeves with their new CarData service

BMW has just launched a service called CarData to users in Germany where the brand collects data such as average fuel economy and kilometres driven. One of the prime benefits is lower insurance premiums in case the car user opts to share the data with the insurance company. 

Other benefits include quick service appointments since workshops will know about the health of the vehicle and order parts in advance. Data received from the car is encrypted and transmitted to BMW servers that claim to securely store the data and share it only with the consent of the owner. 

BMW reiterated that the customer has full access to what data can be released and to whom at the click of a button online. The only requisite for the service to be enabled is for the BMW car to have a built-in SIM card and as soon as the owner registers in the ConnectedDrive portal, CarData can be used at no cost whatsoever.

With cars moving towards self-driving capabilities in the future, a lot of companies are looking to first tap onto the data that’s coming from each vehicle to build on the connected-car technology. Sources suggest that once the data starts coming in, companies will then work towards assimilating and feeding it to services that can be offered.