2022 BMW 330e xDrive Caring Car feature wants to make you feel better
We tried out the Caring Car feature found in the menus of our long-term 2022 BMW 330e xDrive. Caring Car has two programs, Vitalize and Relax, that are meant to help improve your mood. They play music, adjust the climate control and play with the lighting for three minutes to either help invigorate you or calm your nerves. Is it a useful feature that will actually improve you day, a neat party trick or just some goofy nonsense that was a waste of some BMW programmer’s time? See and hear what Caring Car does here, and decide for yourself.
Video Transcript
JOHN SNYDER: Hello, everyone. John Snyder with Autoblog here. I am sitting inside our long-term BMW 330e xDrive. And I was driving the car the other morning, it was cold, and I was tired, driving my son to school. And I played with the menus here, and I saw this caring car feature. And there's two different sessions in the caring car, and the first one is vitalize, which is what I need.
So right now, it's turning on this energizing music, opening up the sunroof, turning down the temperature on the driver's side, and sort of pulsing the fan, almost along with the beat of the music. And so at the end of this, I guess you're supposed to feel refreshed, and vitalized, or revitalized, as most normal people would say. And yeah, it goes on like this for 3 minutes, and then it ends and it goes back to whatever you were doing, whatever you were listening to.
So there's another one on here that I have not used. Now it's closing the sunroof and turning everything back to its normal settings. But there's a relax program, too. That's some relaxing music and a beautiful sunset over the bay on the screen there. And let's see it, turned to the temperature up on my side but turn the fan down. And this time, it kept the sunroof closed. And so after 3 minutes of this, you're supposed to feel nice and relaxed.
I think I might feel sleepy after 3 minutes of this, but I guess coming home from a long stressful day at work or something, this might be just what you need if you're sitting in traffic, and cursing the folks around you. This would help put an end to that. All right, that's enough of that. Anyway, there it is, the caring car program in the BMW 330e. Thanks for watching.