Why is there a speaker for BMW Assist on the footwell?
 

Just set up BMW Assist in my car and when I called them, the sound was coming from a terrible cracky speaker from the driver footwell only. Anyone know why BMW did this? Had a '10 335i Coupe, '11 X5, and a different '12 X5 than the one I have now, and they all routed the sound through the speakers for music...

If I'm not mistaken what sounds like a voice from the footwell is coming from the speaker In the door.

No, the lowest speaker in the X5 is by the window switches and mirror controls, unless you count the subwoofer. It is definitely another speaker not a part of the 14-speakers + 2 sub setup. Also, the car was stopped and I felt + saw the speaker in there. I can take a picture of the footwell speaker if you'd like.

Heck, I'd like to see where this is at just for the heck of it. Please post a pic when you get a chance...

I noticed this the other day too when setting up my account. If you put your foot on the foot rest, the speakers seems to become muffled... very odd placement, I agree.

Above and a little left of the brake.

I'm guessing so that it is independent of the music system, making it easier to have different music systems that can be redesigned/changed easily without impacting the basic vehicle systems. I suspect they are using the speaker used for "sound effects," such as the alarm gong and other sounds.

That is not where the gong sound comes from. From an electrical engineer's point of view, it is actually more complicated and prone to more failures if you create a separate system to do that, rather than use an audio system designed to readily play from whatever source available, eg. Bluetooth calling. There is no impact as the only thing it is designed to do is play audio. If you have BMW Assist on, it shuts down all music anyway.

It probably has a microphone in there as well and Big Brother is listening to your every word...

So your theory is that they are just idiots?