[RPM33]

Originally Posted by ASAP

In my mind, the tablet / touchscreen move has been a disaster... a lot of gloss for little practicality.

Why in the world would you ever get rid of the buttons that are constantly used and have a strong tactile feel?

You always need Volume / Mute, Fan speed and Temperature as a physical button... Anything else creates distractions and increases the chance of an accident... this is a bizarre world we are moving towards.

I have a smart idea. Why don’t they make the infotainment system an option? Where customers like myself can option an infotainment system with buttons. Those that don’t want the buttons can option that. Why can’t they give people the option to option and buy what they want?

[IX3 Vines]

Originally Posted by cfm56d7b

The decision to offer touch only controls is perplexing, especially with increased emphasis on reducing distracted driving.

I assume most of the new touch screen technology is designed with autonomous driving in mind, therefore the driver would be able to play with the screen/system whilst the car was in control

[kjx]

Originally Posted by IX3 Vines

I assume most of the new touch screen technology is designed with autonomous driving in mind, therefore the driver would be able to play with the screen/system whilst the car was in control

We are nowhere near full-autonomous driving (from any manufacturer, despite what Musk has said is "right around the corner" for 6 years now).

Until then the driver must have his full attention on the road and must be maintaining full situational awareness even if the car has assumed control. It is highly irresponsible for anyone to do otherwise since it's literally lives at stake.

[Biggie335]

I "expect" BMW would package the iDrive8 screen better in the 3 series LCI next year and the 5 series refresh for 2025. If the screen looks the same like it does in the i - then no thank you BMW.

For me - having a knob for volume up and down and buttons for temp controls are a real nice to have - its fine to lose buttons but having 2-3 basic ones is a no brainer unless BMW thinks they're going to be the new Tesla.

[IX3 Vines]

Originally Posted by kjx

We are nowhere near full-autonomous driving (from any manufacturer, despite what Musk has said is "right around the corner" for 6 years now).

Until then the driver must have his full attention on the road and must be maintaining full situational awareness even if the car has assumed control. It is highly irresponsible for anyone to do otherwise since it's literally lives at stake.

I agree with you on the safety aspects however the large manufactures are pushing this technology, if people had said we would be driving electric powered cars with touch screen controls and one pedal driving ten years ago we would have had the same reaction. Technology is expanding exponentially and innovation growing of the back of previous innovation.

“Technology goes beyond mere tool making; it is a process of creating ever more powerful technology using the tools from the previous round of innovation.” –Ray Kurzweil

I'm in my 50's and definitely not a supporter of some of the proposed and rolled out technology however like a lot of things in this current age we are not in control.

[FurnTech]

Really wished there was a BMW Genius making the presentation. Specifically to highlight the changes/upgrades between version 7 and 8.

[paquet]

Agree 100%.

Also, I spent the day with an idrive 7 car and I cannot cuss and swear enough about how bad the visual aspect is, compared to idrive 6.

I realize I sound like another angry internet shithead... but I've become a bit of a UI (user interface) guy over the past few years in design and shit... and just the visual comparison on things like fonts, flows and clicks in the instrument cluster and the control display is jarring, often leading to my frustrated cries of 'who thought this was a good idea? this is ugly as sin.'
I kept thinking 'why are these needles so short in the cluster? this looks like a bad 70's car display. why is there a map there that i cannot replace with something else?'

the voice assistant rolling down windows etc was pretty cool though, as were persistent settings like adaptive headlight assist etc sticking through car restarts.

[docallan97]

Can existing models upgrade to the new system or is this just for new vehicles?

[vj123]

Originally Posted by docallan97

Can existing models upgrade to the new system or is this just for new vehicles?

It would require tons of hardware & software updates with lots of research. For the effort and money, you might be better off selling the current vehicle and buying a new one.

[M8Bimmer]

Originally Posted by barryc365

I hate this move toward having everything on the touch screen. I find it very distracting trying to press the buttons and navigate while driving, it's quite dangerous. I much prefer having old analogue buttons for the everyday stuff

I also hate the sharp lines of the big rectangular screens. What was wrong with the beautiful curvaceous dashboards of old that were all tilted toward the driver. Makes you feel like your in the cockpit of a fighter jet. These new dashboards are like big goofy iPads.

Not a fan! We have enough screen time in our lives without having it in the car too!

So so agree.....100%....yack to that dash in many ways.
They tell us NOT to drive distracted....like the WTF are you supposed to do trying to use that giant Ekta-Sketch while doing 110km
My M8 already has too much fucking around with screen imo. For safe driving anyway.
If that's the future, I'm buying a Big Rv bus

[classj]

Yuck.

Just not interested. I like iDrive 6. IDrive 7 is painful but I can deal with it on our inbound X7.

Honestly I have much more fun driving older cars at this point.