Car guys can get pretty obsessive, but they’ve got nothing on hardcore sports fans who often dedicate every spare minute of their day to watching, reading, and hearing about their favorite hobby. And while it might still be on the subs bench in North America, the biggest sport in the rest of the world is soccer.
This is why BMW has teamed up with DFL Deutsche Fußball Liga to bring some of the action from Germany’s premier soccer division to the new 7-Series. The pilot scheme runs until March 2024 and is initially only available in Germany, though countries in Europe, America, and Asia will be offered the Bundesliga in-car App in the coming months, where we’d imagine interest will be microscopic. BMW also hints that the tech will make its way onto new models in the future, so we can probably expect to see it on cars like the 2024 BMW 5-Series that makes its debut later this year.
The content is specially tailored for use in the car and focuses on game highlights and match data, but some action will be streamed live. To do that the car’s owner has to activate the Personal eSIM in the 7-Series allowing the car’s in-built antennae to stream 5G video to the 14.9-in curved infotainment screen on the dashboard. BMW hasn’t said whether games would also be viewable on the huge, optional 31-in rear-compartment Theater Screen, a piece of kit that’s crying out for this kind of feature.
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Unfortunately for 7-Series-buying soccer geeks, but fortunately for anyone coming the other way, the Bundesliga in-car app will only be available to watch while the vehicle is stationary. But when the 7-Series is in motion it is still possible to listen to the feed’s audio, and it’s not hard to see how the system could be linked to BMW’s Level 3 autonomous driving tech in the future, allowing the driver to watch entire games while ambling along in autobahn traffic.
