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Well we've all learned that we look at flagship cars like a BMW seven series to find out what's going to be in cars we can afford, like, five to ten years from now.
This example of the new seven is a pretty good technology showcase that we can look down the road at.
I'm Brian Cooley with my top five milestone tech features in the new beamer flagship Number 5, the Carbon Core.
Now, I put this at number 5 because it is not an entirely new technology, carbon fiber in cars.
But, pure carbon fiber passenger sales remain a tedious, expensive process.
What BMW's done here is hybridize with carbon fiber Reinforced plastic, here and here and here.
Landed with aluminum and lightweight high-string steel.
The overall result is a loss of nearly 200 pounds.
Now, on a big boy like this, that's not exactly earth shaking.
But, weight loss is the holy grail, and this is the important way of getting.
There.
By the way, this technology trickled down from the i series, the i3 and the i8, where it emerged a couple of years ago.
Number four, laser headlights.
Now, I put these relatively low because this is not entirely new technology.
Audi got these out in a limited production R8 a little while ago, but this is full production, and In the 7 series.
Contrary to what you might think, laser headlights don't literally aim out on the road like lasers at a concert.
They go about an inch, and they hit an illumination structure inside the lamp and then that light is projected out.
But you end up with a much more efficient and controllable light.
Huge throw, they say about a mile for these guys.
That's way more than your current high beams, while using about a third less power.
'They're very tiny modules.
And they should las forever, unless you rear end someone.
Don't do that.
Number three is gesture control.
Now a BMW gives you a lot of ways to control the center stack.
You've got the traditional iDrive know controller, which lately has had a touchpad on top of that.
Voice command continues, better than before.
You've got a touch screen now.
I'm still getting used to that in a premium German car.
That was very no-no for the last number of years.
But now, on the top of all that is gesture command, as well.
This is biggest mainstream push to put gesture in real cars, yet.
Number two is the Head Up Display.
You might say, a HUD's nothing new, and it's not.
But this is the largest one in the business.
And that's important in a HUD, because the bigger and more expansive it is, the less you have to scrutinize a small piece of real estate, which is not a great idea when you're driving.
You want a big one that is more or less in your gaze, and this one's absolutely doing that.
On top of that, BMW already, in my opinion, did the best info graphics on a HUD of anybody in the industry.
What I wanna see them push the bar on next is, be the first to get augmented reality Lee in here.
Number one, in the words of Auric Goldfinger is, what an extraordinary car key you have, Mr. Bond.
This is the first LCD touchscreen remote key fob.
Now, you slide it It up to get to your screens and you can see if the car's lock, you can check your fuel range, check your battery charge if you happen to have a plug in hybrid or something.
But here's where it get really interesting on the last screen it marries into a new level of self parking tech, so you hit this button here, and the car goes and identifies nearby parking space, it shows you yes I have found one.
Then you just stand on this arrow and the car will start to nose in all by itself.
You aren't in the car.
Notice that that's also a dead man switch.
If I lift off, the car stops moving for safety reasons.
Otherwise, I just stay on the arrow and the car takes itself all the way in and when it's done, it tells me and all I have to do is turn it off and it locks and I walk away.
That's a crowd pleaser.
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More top five lists await the car lovers.
Go to CNETOnCars.com, click on top five.
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