Many times we carry the iPhone inside the car and charge it, either through wireless charging or through a USB cable. Many manufacturers also offer wireless charging bases integrated into vehicles. And many others, in addition to this, also offer support for CarPlay. And what does the iPhone 15 have to do with a specific car? Well, if we put it on charge, it is in danger, and some users are already reporting it to Apple itself.
An iPhone 15 and BMW don’t get along too well
According to what they are reporting from MacRumors, “some BMW users have complained that the NFC chip on their iPhone 15 stops working when they charge the device on the charging mat.” This is not a software failure, but at the level of internal componentssince they also explain that “the NFC chip is also not functional when the device has been restarted”, alluding to the fact that many of these users have decided to put the phones in restore mode, to try to solve the problem.
First of all, how did you realize the problem? In the same medium they explain that this has begun to be known as a result of the publications that different people have explained through the official MacRumors forum, as well as in different publications on the social network X.
And what does this problem with the NFC chip affect? On the one hand, the configuration of Apple Pay. The Cupertino company’s payment system needs this chip in the phone to show the credit card so that it can be read. On the other hand, if we talk about a more automotive field, the iPhone cannot be used as a key to open the car.
Why is this happening and how can it be solved?
For now, the truth is that «the cause of the problem is not clear«, according to what they report from MacRumors. It is also not clear how many people are being affected, and regarding the BMW models that are involved, there is no clear and defined list.
Is this a real danger? From the same website they explain that those who have an iPhone 15, “act with caution until the problem has been solved. Furthermore, users who have decided to change the NFC chip are not saved. “Replacing the NFC chip is also vulnerable to the same problem, so there is no permanent solution right now,” they explain.
Since it is the same chip, with the same characteristics, the component carries the same risks as the original. So, the real danger is that there is no fix at the moment. There is also no clarified explanation that indicates why all this happens, and the circumstances under which this occurs are not known.
Likewise, all iPhone 15s may be vulnerable. Although at the moment this has happened on the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max, the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus may also be victims of this failure, since they all have the same NFC chip.