![]() ![]() The iDrive control knob still sits ahead of the center armrest, but it is surrounded by a cluster of seven buttons. Now, with what is officially BMW’s fourth version of iDrive, the company has abandoned the compass menu for a traditional vertical list and branching-tree structure. Later, the eight-point compass menu was cut to four. ![]() And the on-screen menus, which started from an odd eight-point compass screen, used abstruse initials like “BC” (meaning board computer, used to access features like distance-to-empty and fuel economy) and “PDC pic” (meaning park distance control, which helps with parking).Īs if all this weren’t bad enough, earlier iDrives were so slow to respond that changing any setting was best performed while the car was parked.īut over the years, BMW throttled back on the iDrive, first adding buttons for climate controls, then a row of programmable buttons so that drivers could get directly to functions of their choice. In one version of the system, for example, one had to navigate multiple screens just to turn up the air-conditioning storing a preferred radio station took up to five spins and clicks of the knob. The trouble was that it was frustratingly complex. The iDrive could (and still can) control everything from the temperature settings and the speed of the air-conditioning fan to the radio, navigation system and cellphone. But as engineers sometimes do, they went too far. So they eliminated many of the buttons and knobs and replaced them with iDrive’s in-dash LCD display and a rotating, sliding, toggling knob on the center console, allowing drivers to select among myriad controls and settings. BMW engineers said they thought the growing thicket of inscrutable buttons on car dashboards was confusing. The iDrive system was originally intended to be a paragon of simplicity. Now, in some cars that became available this month, the company is offering a new system with a revised interface that is easier to use and may be ready to shed its image as a symbol of technology run amok. ![]() “Dizzying,” “hindrance” and “knobsense” are some of the kinder words that have been used to describe the often bewildering computerized interface that operates the navigation, communications and entertainment systems.īut just as relentlessly, BMW has clung to iDrive through seven years of adjustments, upgrades and tweaks. ONE is hard pressed to recall an automotive feature that has been as relentlessly criticized as iDrive, the central control system in many BMWs. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
December 2022
Categories |