Owners of the latest iPhones who also drive BMW vehicles are facing a peculiar issue that involves wireless charging. Reports have emerged that the charging pads in certain BMW models have been causing NFC (Near Field Communication) chips in the new iPhones to malfunction. This issue is rendering contactless payments, digital car keys, and other NFC-related features on the iPhones unusable.
When affected iPhone users place their devices on the BMW charging pads, their iPhones display a white screen and enter recovery mode. Upon restarting, the devices appear normal until the user attempts to use any function that requires NFC. Users then encounter an error message in the Wallet application that reads “Could Not Set Up Apple Pay.”
Although there is no known fix for this problem, some customers have reported that Apple replaced their damaged devices after encountering the error. BMW says it is “looking into” the issue, while Apple claims that the iPhone is designed to regulate its power draw and temperatures to ensure long-term safety and performance.
The exact cause of the NFC chip malfunctions remains uncertain. While NFC and Qi wireless charging do not operate at the same frequency, both use a similar method of data transmission called inductive coupling. Although NFC operates at a low power frequency of 13.56 MHz and is typically used for data transmission, Qi is a dedicated charging standard designed to wirelessly transmit power between a charger and a device without cables.
It is unclear why the NFC radio is malfunctioning, as the Qi charging and NFC radios use separate antennas located in different parts of the phone. However, some speculate that overheating caused by wireless charging could be contributing to the issue.
For context, BMW was one of the early adopters of Apple’s CarKey feature, which uses NFC to authenticate a phone with a vehicle. In some BMW models, CarKey functionality requires placing the iPhone in the car’s wireless charging tray to communicate with the vehicle.
Until the cause of this issue is determined and resolved, iPhone users with BMWs may need to avoid using wireless chargers in their vehicles and rely on other methods for charging and NFC-related features.
Disclaimer: The views, suggestions, and opinions expressed here are the sole responsibility of the experts. No Atlantic Brief journalist was involved in the writing and production of this article.
