Tesla made the headlines when it announced the introduction of over the air updates for its cars. With this new feature, the cars could be updated in real time, making the infotainment system better, but also introducing new features altogether. However, the American company isn’t the only one that offers over the air updates, BMW also being one of the early innovators in the field.

The Germans have been fiddling with such solutions for quite some time now and starting this year customers can even buy certain features on their cars, not just use over the air updates for security updates. Depending on the car you own, these updates could include a variety of case uses, they will be highly dependent on what you have installed on it though. The range of features that can be purchased is available in the iDrive menu.

As you can see in the video below, if your car has the hardware installed but the software isn’t activated, you’ll receive a message on the iDrive screen letting you know you can actually enable a specific function. In this case it’s the high-beam assistant, which automatically dips the beam whenever you approach a car on the other side of the road. Once you’ve been warned that the function is not enabled but can be activated you can do so by following the steps listed below.

Video: What can you ask your BMW Intelligent Personal Assistant?

Basically, in order to buy anything you have to access the Remote Software Upgrade sub-menu and check out whatever is available. To order a specific function, go to the ConnectedDrive Store by pressing “Apps”, “Bookable” and select the feature. After accepting the general terms, press “Purchase now”. You will get a confirmation of your purchase and you can start the installation after your next ride.

Let’s take a look at this demo: