Two decades after its debut in the 2001 Series 7, BMW’s iDrive information system is among the best on the market. It’s going to get even better – thinking, natural language processing, gesture control and cloud – based machine learning – with the launch of its latest version, iDrive 8, aboard the upcoming BMW iX and i4.
BMW
The system’s intelligent AI, BMW Intelligent Personal Assistant, will be the driver’s primary point of contact when dealing with the new iDrive 8. The driver can give the IPA a personalized name and then set up different functions and information streams in the vehicle using verbal or non-verbal commands. The new iDrive 8 also got a kind of face: ‘light spheres in different sizes and brightness levels, giving the assistant more space and new ways to express himself’, according to a press release from BMW.
Drivers also find that the iDrive 8 offers more contextual features than its predecessors. The new system will take into account external conditions such as traffic and road conditions before attempting with the vehicle’s passengers. It will also control ‘functions such as climate control, ambient lighting, sound reproduction, opening and closing the side windows, shading of the panoramic glass roof, switching between my modes and the driver assistance systems’, so that the driver does not have to drive off the road under heavy traffic conditions. to find the top defrost controls on a touch screen menu. What’s more, the IPA can also provide vehicle status information and details on local attractions.
“The future will be with fewer switches,” BMW CTO Frank Weber said during an online roundtable on Monday. “But it will not be a switch.”
BMW
My Modes is another new feature for iDrive 8, which replaces the older driver experience control. It allows the driver to personalize and activate up to ten vehicle parameters under a single command grouping. The predetermined modes include Efficient, which puts energy efficiency and a calming cabin interior first; Sport, which increases acceleration and handling; and Personal, whatever you want. Additional modes will eventually be made available to the BMW community through future OTA updates using the 5G connection on board the vehicle.
The iDrive’s various monitors and gauges will appear on BMW’s new curved screen that combines a 200 ppi 12.3-inch information display instead of the traditional control group, and a 14.9-inch control (read, info) . The all-electric iX also features a HUD, the projector of which is integrated into the steering column, which shows the driver’s relevant vehicle information directly on the windscreen in front of them. To ensure that the driver is not distracted by strange information, BMW has adopted a principle of ‘Law, detection and information’ in which ‘pre-filtering’ ensures that only information relevant to the driver is presented to the driver and always shown. where they can absorb it as quickly and easily as possible, ”.
The iDrive’s graphics are similarly designed for the least driver distraction. Like previous versions, the iDrive 8 drivers will allow you to customize their various graphics screens and quickly switch between three predefined menu layouts and a number of media widgets using tactile buttons on the steering wheel. These presets include Drive, which provides a “dynamically changing area in the center of the information screen to display individually selectable information;” Focus, which holds the rhymers in front and in the middle; and Gallery, which seems like a very bad idea because it reduces the toolbar in favor of media widgets. There is also a calm mode that shows the vehicle’s speed and nothing else.
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Drivers can also take their personal settings with them with the new BMW ID feature, which is linked to a PIN or the driver’s MyBMW app. Simply enter the PIN or entangle your app on any vehicle with an iDrive 7 or 8 to instantly transfer each of your preferred settings to the new car – very handy if you have just received a lender from the dealer.
BMW also relies heavily on cloud-based machine learning to improve the IPA’s responsiveness as well as the iX’s navigation system. Instead of just taking traffic data from the driver and generating it again, the new iDrive 8 has learned to calculate probabilities. For example, it will use the traffic patterns around local attractions to produce more accurate ETAs. This can help drivers find open parking spaces near their destination. The same goes for the vehicle’s air conditioning. BMW has taught the iDrive 8 to better meet the climate needs of its drivers, based on 440 million practice trips from around the world. This allows the iDrive to automatically set the optimum cabin temperature based on not only the environmental conditions but also the driver’s personal habits.