Chigee's AIO5 Play for BMW Hits the Mark

August 16, 2024

For years, I’ve been asking BMW for a simple CarPlay-based solution for my BMW motorcycles. It began with my overview of “BMW’s electronics dumpster fire,” saw BMW argue with me about it as they claimed they know best, and concluded with me speculating that a company called Chigee is poised to solve this for them.

The money quote from my August, 2020 post was:

Ditch the Navigator and build a CarPlay / Android Auto display. BMW has hundreds of thousands of bikes out there with Navigator mounts ... Every single one of them is a potential customer for a new device that BMW can partner to build: A display that plugs into the BMW-owned Navigator mount/interface and does nothing but provide a screen for CarPlay or Android Auto.

It would need to be weatherproof, work with gloved fingers, and be powered by the Wonder Wheel on all models. BMW could charge $300-$500 for it.

While there are many CarPlay solutions for bikes out there, most of them come from cheap electronics manufacturers that are quickly assembling stock hardware and minimal software. They tend to have the issues you’d expect with cheap gear: phone connectivity problems, setup complexity, and poor build quality. One company, Chigee, has stood out because of their pure focus on motorcycling, community-driven Kickstarter campaigns, superior build quality, and great support in online forums.

You’ll notice that I say “CarPlay” more often than Android Auto. There are two reasons for this: I’m an iPhone user, and Apple supports CarPlay on motorcycles while Google does not support Android Auto for motorcycles. Android Auto has been made to work by some device manufacturers, but it’s without Google’s support and often compromised. For example, Chigee doesn’t support Google Assistant voice control with Android Auto, which is a major shortcoming being worked on as I type.

Review gear and conditions

How it worked

The AIO5 series of devices - both the Play and Lite editions - have been around for a while bringing CarPlay to motorcyclists alongside blind spot monitoring and ride-cam features with bundled cameras. These editions can be fit to most any motorcycle. Where things got exciting for me was the announcement of the AIO5 Play for BMW edition..

aio5-play

The AIO5 Play for BMW is exciting because it “just works” in the way that I describe in my quote above. Chigee’s rapid product development cycle, combined with a willingness to listen to customers, allowed them to do what BMW’s arrogance kept from their reach: build a device that…

In fact, Chigee went beyond expectations by interfacing with BMW’s on-board telemetry, allowing the AIO5 to display tire pressure, lean angle, gear selection, speed, distance to empty, and more. These were all bits of data available on BMW’s Navigator 5 and 6 at twice the price and half the performance.

My first impression after unboxing was that it felt very solid. The build quality is impeccable, and it has the solid feel of any high-end nav unit from an OEM.

aio5-play

Because this BMW flavor of the AIO5 was designed to interface with the factory-supplied navigation prep mount, there is no bracket or mounting hardware to install. There is no additional power or data cables to run to the battery or the bike’s CAN bus. You literally insert it into the bike’s navigation mount, power on the motorcycle, and begin the on-screen setup process.

The software is not perfect, and setup is where you will first encounter a few fit and finish issues. For example, after you pick “English” (or your preferred language) and press NEXT, you’ll see a time zone selection screen; the OK button on this screen is in Chinese (they forgot to localize a button). Once you get past this, the system will activate itself and then perform a software update over your wi-fi or tethered phone. I had one failed device registration, but retrying worked. The software update was smooth.

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A couple of Bluetooth pairings between your phone and AIO5, and CarPlay is available! This was exciting because everything is so familiar from CarPlay in cages. Your notifications, music, mapping apps, podcasts… it’s all there at your fingertips. I reported a bug or two to Chigee already, like the inability to read the ambient and engine temperatures in degrees Fahrenheit (it’s stuck in Celsius). They’ve committed to fixing these issues in a future software update. Don’t let those few issues get in the way of the simple, functional experience that Chigee has built: For a few hundred bucks, you have CarPlay on your motorcycle in a way that seamlessly integrates with your bike’s telemetry data, power source, and wonder wheel for input. It’s amazing that they pulled this off so elegantly!

aio5-play

My first ride with my new AIO5 for BMW was about 120 miles and involved a ferry ride from an island to the mainland and back. The unit performed flawlessly. Flawless means that it powered on with the bike every time, quickly and automatically established a connection to my phone each time, entered CarPlay mode quickly, and never dropped a connection on me. Here’s my AIO5 in the nav mount of my 2023 BMW R1250GSA aboard the ferry. The screen is bright and clear and easily readable.

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One more software issue becomes visible only after a ride: the unit thinks it took me 596,538 hours and 15 minutes to ride 120 miles. I’m pretty sure it was more like 3 hours on my winding route. And miles should be plural.

aio5-play

When it comes to interacting with the unit, no single model is perfect.

While no individual method is complete, having all four of these inputs working in concert made my experience great. I use voice 90% of the time, leaning on the handlebar remote to activate Siri if wind noise is too loud for “Hey, Siri!” Touch is great for app switching. Wonder wheel input is great for zooming, scrolling, or just switching back and forth between screens. It works the way you’d expect it to work on a motorcycle.

I give Chigee a solid A- on this first BMW-specific iteration of the AIO5 Play system. They can quickly get it to an A by fixing the software issues that I noted above. It’s easy for me to recommend it as-is, though.

If you ride a BMW motorcycle that has the navigation prep option, and you enjoy using CarPlay or Android Auto, Chigee brings it together for you at a very reasonable price. Before discounts, it’s $519, which is just over half the cost of BMW’s underpowered, feature-poor OEM solution. Best of all, it just works and keeps you navigating and connected the way that CarPlay has become famous for.

Thank you, Chigee, for delivering exactly the product that I wished for back in 2020. It’s well-built, vibration- and weather-proofed, and is a joy to use. It will enjoy many miles on my BMW motorcycle.

Ride safe,
Jeff