Manual / Features
Events & automation blueprints
BavarianData streams data in real time, so it’s built for automations that react the instant something changes rather than on a polling cycle.
Device triggers#
The easiest way in: create an automation, choose Device as the trigger, pick your car, and choose from the list. No YAML and no entity names needed.
| Trigger | Fires when | Options |
|---|---|---|
| Arrived at a zone | a drive ends inside a zone, once the car has parked (usually 1–3 minutes after it stops) | a zone, or empty for any zone |
| Left a zone | a drive carries the car out of the zone it started in | a zone, or empty for any zone |
| Parked and left unlocked | the car stands unlocked for the chosen time | how long (default 10 minutes) |
| Plugged in but not charging | a cable is in, nothing is charging, and the car is below its charging target, for the chosen time | how long (default 15 minutes) |
| Charging started | a charging session begins | — |
| Charging completed (target reached) | a session ends at or above the target | — |
| Charging stopped before the target, cable still in | a session ends short of the target while the cable is still plugged in | — |
Only the triggers your car can fire are listed. A car that never sent a lock state gets no Parked and left unlocked; the zone triggers need the car’s position and the trip journal (on by default).
What they deliberately don’t do#
These triggers are built to fire exactly once, and never falsely:
- Nothing fires from a restart. After Home Assistant restarts, a situation starts again only once the car reports it anew. A car that was locked while Home Assistant was down never raises “left unlocked” on startup. The price is that a car that was already unlocked before the restart is only noticed at its next report.
- Unlocking to get in is not “left unlocked”. The car unlocks at every arrival and relocks itself about two minutes later if no door is opened. The waiting time exists for that; below about three minutes the trigger fires every day.
- A car that is done charging is not “not charging”. At (or within 1 % of) its target, a plugged-in car that has stopped is finished, not stuck.
- Unplugging early is not an interruption. Charging stopped before the target needs the cable still in two minutes after the stop, so a short pause that resumes on its own, or a driver who unplugs, doesn’t fire it.
- Solar and price-controlled charging pauses on purpose. If a charge controller (evcc, a wallbox’s solar mode) stops and starts the charge, Plugged in but not charging and Charging stopped before the target fire at those pauses too — that is what happened. Add a condition (for example “only after 22:00”) or a longer waiting time.
- Arriving is not crossing the boundary. Arrived at a zone fires when the drive ends, so driving past home doesn’t trigger it, and GPS jitter at the zone edge can’t make it flicker. Home Assistant’s own zone triggers on the car’s location entity still exist if you want the moment of crossing.
What the automation gets#
Every trigger passes its details as trigger.data:
| Trigger | trigger.data |
|---|---|
| Arrived at a zone | zone, zone_entity_id, from, distance_km, duration_s, energy_kwh, soc, trip_id, trip_start |
| Left a zone | zone, zone_entity_id, soc, trip_start |
| Parked and left unlocked | since, zone, zone_entity_id |
| Plugged in but not charging | since, soc, target_soc, zone, zone_entity_id |
| Charging started / completed | soc, target_soc, status (completed: also energy_kwh, cost, session_id) |
| Charging stopped before the target | as completed, plus reason — BMW’s own word for why, when the car sends one |
Every payload also carries vin and entry_id. An example that warns about a
car left unlocked at home:
triggers:
- trigger: device
domain: bavariandata
device_id: <your car>
type: parked_unlocked
for: { minutes: 10 }
conditions:
- condition: template
value_template: "{{ trigger.data.zone_entity_id == 'zone.home' }}"
actions:
- action: notify.mobile_app_phone
data:
message: "The car has been unlocked in the driveway for 10 minutes."Events#
Everything behind the triggers is also fired on the Home Assistant event
bus, for YAML automations and Node-RED (watch them under Developer Tools →
Events). Each carries vin and entry_id.
| Event | Fires when | Data |
|---|---|---|
bavariandata_charging_started | a session begins | soc, target_soc, status |
bavariandata_charging_stopped | a session ends (any reason) | soc, target_soc, status, energy_kwh, cost, session_id |
bavariandata_charging_complete | a session ends at/above the target SoC | as charging_stopped |
bavariandata_charging_interrupted | a session ends short of the target with the cable still in | as charging_stopped, plus reason |
bavariandata_zone_arrived | a drive ends inside a zone | as the Arrived at a zone trigger |
bavariandata_zone_left | a drive leaves the zone it started in | as the Left a zone trigger |
bavariandata_situation | a situation begins (active: true) or ends (active: false) | situation (parked_unlocked or plugged_not_charging), active, since, … |
bavariandata_situation fires at the moment a situation starts, with no waiting
time — the device triggers add the “for N minutes”. In YAML, the same effect
needs a wait_for_trigger on the matching active: false event.
Starter blueprints#
Two starter automations ship with the integration. Import them via Settings → Automations → Blueprints → Import Blueprint with the raw GitHub URL:
- Stop charging at target % —
stop_charge_at_target.yaml. Switches off a wallbox / smart-plug the moment a SoC sensor reaches your target. CarData is read-only, so it drives an external switch you already have — it can’t command the car directly. - Notify when charging completes —
notify_charging_complete.yaml. Pings a notify service on the charging-complete / -stopped events above.
Remember: read-only#
CarData cannot send commands, so no automation built on this integration can lock, precondition, or otherwise control the car. Automations act on external devices (wallboxes, plugs, notifiers) in response to the car’s data.