BMW’s Post-Sale Improvement Program Reaches beyond Neue Klasse Models

BMW announced a largely functional change to a data collection program it began in April:

Since April 2026, the BMW Group can collect such image data in EU member states from vehicles of the new model generation, which are equipped with the necessary sensor technology and data processing architecture for situational capture of environmental video data.

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Thanks to BMW software updates, customers and road users will benefit from over-the-air system improvements that can be implemented in the future using the image data collected from real-world traffic situations.

The change involves blurring faces and license plates: the earlier process blurred images inside the car before sending them to the cloud, while the new process uploads unblurred images to a protected back-end environment. The change seems sensible—in-vehicle blurring obscures cues like pedestrian gaze and head movement that are important for training.

It’s a small but visible sign of BMW’s approach to improving Neue Klasse products post-sale and spreading the technology across the broader lineup—BMW says the change applies to the Neue Klasse iX3 and i3, as well as new-generation models like the X5 and updated models like the 7 Series, and other upcoming models.