BMW's iDrive tech is better than ever in the 2019 X5
Cars
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Today we're taking a look at BMW cockpit professional with I drive 7.0.
You can find this dashboard tech in a variety of 2019 BMW models like the X5 that we're in today.
So don't panic if you get linked here from a different vehicle, and there's a lot to get into.
So let's dive right in.
So we got in front of me is the largest 12.3 inch touchscreen display of the I drive 7.0, the seventh generation of this software and for the first time.
It seems like BMW built it with touch in mind instead of adding the functionality after the fact.
So what we've got here is a complete Structuring of the IDrive interface starting with this home screen with these live tiles.
Now, they're customizable, and you can have multiple home screens, and you can go into the menu and change what any of those tiles are.
So right now we've got position here, but if we want that to be our driving information, we can have fuel economy information right there.
And you can add as many of these screens as you want.
I got up to about ten of those screens in the customization.
But with only about 11 tiles to chose from, I don't know why you need more than above five.
Now the rest of the interface is right here on the side, where you've got shortcuts to the different parts of the interface.
We'll start with media selection where we've.
You've got your list of all of your digital audio sources, including satellite radio, your terrestrial HD radio stations, Bluetooth connectivity, USB, as well as an internal hard drive that allows you to rip and store certain music off of CDs.
Heading back to the home screen, we've got the communications menu, that's where your hands-free calling stuff's going to be, and then we're going to pop down into navigation, which allows you to take advantage of this massive display with a large color map.
Now, you'll notice that you're able to slide things out from the side, to get access to shortcuts for things like where to.
But while we're in the navigation, I wanna show you a really cool feature.
Voice command has really been updated for this generation.
You don't even actually have to pop into the menu, to tell it where you wanna go, so watch this.
Hey, BMW Give me directions to the nearest Taco Bell.
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Which one of these destinations should I select?
[SOUND] Perfect.
Our next destination is Taco Bell.
Now what I just demonstrated was the ABMW voice xommand system that allows me to pull up the nature language voice command without actually touching any buttons on the steering wheel.
And I also have access to gesture controls, so I can so things like twirl my finger in the air to adjust the volume Two fingers for pause, for example, or a swipe to dismiss notifications.
It's actually a really interesting evolution of the gesture system that we saw in the last generation of i drive.
It's a lot easier to use, and it's a lot less false positives.
The next major menu is going to be the vehicle menu and that's where you're going to do things like monitor your fuel economy, you've got.
Things like sport displays.
It'll show you what your current tork and horsepower output, as well as a G meter.
And then you've also get this X view that's gonna show you how the X drive all wheel drive system works, your ride height, things like your live tilt information when you're off roading this luxury sport utility vehicle.
And then finally we've got the apps menu.
It's a little bit confusing because you've got your onboard apps that allow you to use the 4G LTE connection to do things in the dashboard like use park now to search for a parking spot or use weather to pull up current conditions But then it also connects to the BMW connect app on an Android or IOS device.
Which actually haven't gotten to work very well.
You should be able to call up Spotify or other apps like that and command them in the dashboard, but it doesn't seem to work really well for me.
Now I've been using voice gestures and the touch screen for pretty much everything we've done so far.
But BMW's iDrive controller is still in full effect.
And you can use this knob to do pretty much everything that we've done up to this point.
Including customize the home screen, scroll around, tap, slide, there's even a little touch pad on the top if you prefer to write in your address instead of speaking it.
Now the next part of the live cockpit professional is the cockpit portion, and that's going to be this other large 12.3 inch display in front of me.
It's sort of BMW's answer to Audi's virtual cockpit except for it's not as fully functioned.
It will do a live map for turn by turn navigation.
You've got a portion over here that is dedicated to things like fuel economy or performance information.
But for the most part it's just a really nice looking digital instrument cluster that changes colors when you change drive modes.
And the last piece of this puzzle is the large head up display that seems to float out over the hood of the car.
That's gonna basically show you your current speed, things like your cruise control information, yet a third location to show turn by turn navigation But it's also where you'll be able to select your audio source using a thumb knob here on the steering wheel without taking your eyes off the road.
Now that's been a pretty in depth dive into a an overhaul in BMW's dashboard technology, but somehow I feel like I'm only still scratching the surface here.
So be sure to check out our full review over on the roadshow.com for even more details about the tech, and what it's like to actually drive this thing.
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