[surma884]

Is the navigation in the F30 a touch screen? I searched, but couldn't find the answer.

[Vector Pilot]

No

[robbieracer]

Nope, the iDrive does it all.

[SomeRandomer123]

Nope, and thank god it isn't! Touch screen in the car is even more distracting and difficult to use. One of the handful of reasons the Evoque was stricken off the car list!

[mkeath]

Originally Posted by SomeRandomer123

Nope, and thank god it isn't! Touch screen in the car is even more distracting and difficult to use. One of the handful of reasons the Evoque was stricken off the car list!

Either way you have to take your eyes off the road to look at the screen. The iDrive system is pretty nifty, but I think if the screen were angled towards the driver and placed closer, a touch screen would be less distracting. What manufacturers really need to do is start using capacitive displays (the one on modern smartphones) instead of resistive displays (the one used on credit card scanners).

[jtuds]

Originally Posted by mkeath

Either way you have to take your eyes off the road to look at the screen. The iDrive system is pretty nifty, but I think if the screen were angled towards the driver and placed closer, a touch screen would be less distracting. What manufacturers really need to do is start using capacitive displays (the one on modern smartphones) instead of resistive displays (the one used on credit card scanners).

I wish the BMW was able to show you more between the tac and speedo. Merc displays a lot of info there....so you can use your dial but don't have to look to the side, you just look down....might be helpful

In any case, touch screen isn't that good...we have it in our Lexus...it is confusing and distracting, not user friendly.

[Raspartan]

And fingerprints. You'd always be wiping them off.

More promising I think is the gesture-based system they were working on. It still needs work because I think there is the potential for distraction there if it's not done well too. Here's a YouTube video of it.

[jtuds]

Originally Posted by Raspartan

And fingerprints. You'd always be wiping them off.

More promising I think is the gesture-based system they were working on. It still needs work because I think there is the potential for distraction there if it's not done well too. Here's a YouTube video of it.

Ideally, we'll just get an amazing voice rec system that allows you to press a button and tell it what you want, like the computer in star trek....probably not that far off.

[Raspartan]

Originally Posted by jtuds

Ideally, we'll just get an amazing voice rec system that allows you to press a button and tell it what you want, like the computer in star trek....probably not that far off.

Well you can practically do that today with the F30, within limits. Based on what's available on mobile phones, you can see that it's just getting better all the time. It seems to me that vehicle manufacturers seem to adopt (and update) this kind of technology somewhat reluctantly though.

[jtuds]

Originally Posted by Raspartan

It seems to me that vehicle manufacturers seem to adopt (and update) this kind of technology somewhat reluctantly though.

I agree....which is odd. You'd think they'd be inclined to lead the pack. In this day and age I don't see another application for voice commands that's as prominent as in a vehicle.

[svache]

Originally Posted by jtuds

Ideally, we'll just get an amazing voice rec system that allows you to press a button and tell it what you want, like the computer in star trek....probably not that far off.

I have that in my X5 but don't use it much at all.. most of the time it is like 'do not recognize, system off'

[mkeath]

Originally Posted by jtuds

I wish the BMW was able to show you more between the tac and speedo. Merc displays a lot of info there....so you can use your dial but don't have to look to the side, you just look down....might be helpful

In any case, touch screen isn't that good...we have it in our Lexus...it is confusing and distracting, not user friendly.

Is it Toyota's Entune system? Or at least the new satnavs with that in them? I found it very intuitive. I test drove that before I saw that the 328i was in my price range and figured it out immediately.

Originally Posted by Raspartan

Well you can practically do that today with the F30, within limits. Based on what's available on mobile phones, you can see that it's just getting better all the time. It seems to me that vehicle manufacturers seem to adopt (and update) this kind of technology somewhat reluctantly though.

Originally Posted by jtuds

I agree....which is odd. You'd think they'd be inclined to lead the pack. In this day and age I don't see another application for voice commands that's as prominent as in a vehicle.

The problem with that is that the technology on phones cheats. They don't actually do the interpretation on the phones. It records your voice, uploads the sound clip to a massive server cluster with massive decision-making databases running extremely complex algorithms interpret what you said, decide what you meant, and send the result back to the phone. Google is probably more than willing to offer this to BMW, but it will be more expensive on the cellular data side. Not to mention Google's voice recognition isn't as good as Apple's. Even then, it's not quite that simple. For example, the Watson supercomputer was programmed specifically to play jeopardy. Getting voice recognition to operate reliably is extremely hard to do even when you're tooling it to a specific purpose with a specific set of actions.

[surma884]

Thanks for the replies. Good info. BMW should get something like Siri. That would be nice.

[S.hasan546]

No. Germans don't believe in touch screens.

[NGuyadeen]

Originally Posted by surma884

Is the navigation in the F30 a touch screen? I searched, but couldn't find the answer.

Nope thankgod!!!!! I have tried the Touch in the Lexus and Cadillac and i hate it. I ike my ole fassion button/wheell

[gatoman39]

Originally Posted by surma884

Thanks for the replies. Good info. BMW should get something like Siri. That would be nice.

Mercedes is the first to announce their Comand system to work with SIRI.

Mercedes-Benz updates A-Class infotainment system, focuses on iPhone and Siri integration

[shoptb]

There's no way to do anything on a touch-screen without taking one's eyes off the road. With iDrive, one can at least execute learned actions using the controller without looking at the screen. This minimizes the amount of time that the driver needs to remove his/her eyes from the road.

[BMWrules7]

Originally Posted by Raspartan

And fingerprints. You'd always be wiping them off.

More promising I think is the gesture-based system they were working on. It still needs work because I think there is the potential for distraction there if it's not done well too. Here's a YouTube video of it.

What's your car gonna do when your babe is given you a hummer? What gesture function will be called from the library? Perhaps this code:

SenseOrgasmFace() {

ApplyParkingBreak();
Dsc(off);
RevEngine(7000rpm);
ReleaseParkingBreak();
ReleaseTrunk();
ReleaseHood();
HonkHorn(5 times);
StartStop(engineOff);


}

[bl@ster]

Originally Posted by BMWrules7

What's your car gonna do when your babe is given you a hummer? What gesture function will be called from the library? Perhaps this code:

SenseOrgasmFace() {

ApplyParkingBreak();
Dsc(off);
RevEngine(7000rpm);
ReleaseParkingBreak();
ReleaseTrunk();
ReleaseHood();
HonkHorn(5 times);
StartStop(engineOff);


}

Don't worry, F30 comes with an Auto Gasm Alert feature where automated steering will kick in. And it also has inside the cabin windshield washers, just in case...

[Feanor]

Originally Posted by jtuds

I agree....which is odd. You'd think they'd be inclined to lead the pack. In this day and age I don't see another application for voice commands that's as prominent as in a vehicle.

I think it makes a lot of sense that car manufacturers don't lead the way with things like that.

Firstly, they want tried and tested technology. Remember the old myth about the argument between Bill Gates and someone in Ford or General Motors about how if the car industry had innovated we'd all be buzzing around in electric motors that drive themselves or something? The thing is that cars have to be reliable, and not just for safety reasons - they have a much longer life than your personal tech and you don't expect the computer to freeze or crash routinely.

The other thing is that each car manufacturer largely seems to make their own systems. I don't think they have the economies of scale to be innovative. Look at the number of people who buy iPhones and Android handsets each year - this gives Apple and Google etc vast amounts of money to invest in R&D. Car companies have to spread their R&D budget over not just the in-car computer systems but also an incredibly complicated machine that has to be 100% safe and has to deal with incredibly harsh environments day in, day out for a decade or more.

Originally Posted by shoptb

There's no way to do anything on a touch-screen without taking one's eyes off the road. With iDrive, one can at least execute learned actions using the controller without looking at the screen. This minimizes the amount of time that the driver needs to remove his/her eyes from the road.

Absolutely. My experience using touch-screen satnavs backs this up.

I've not used the iDrive but having seen taxi drivers use Mercedes' version I realise that, while it's slower to use if you can give it 100% of your attention, you can flick your attention between the iDrive and the road more readily. With a touch screen I'm trying to coordinate my finger's exact position and trying to stop my finger being thrown off by bumps in the road all while steering and watching out for hazards. It's downright dangerous IMO.

What I'm hoping will make use of the iDrive easier is the HUD, as I understand that some things like song lists etc display on it?

[Robin_NL]

Originally Posted by jtuds

Ideally, we'll just get an amazing voice rec system that allows you to press a button and tell it what you want, like the computer in star trek....probably not that far off.

As already explained by a few posters above; This is what I have in my F30 and in my ex F10.

You push the button and say : Navigation/Radio whatever
Then she(I call her Sixy, my wife doesn't know about her.) asks you the usual questions.You respond etc.

Works just fine.

[shoptb]

Originally Posted by Feanor

What I'm hoping will make use of the iDrive easier is the HUD, as I understand that some things like song lists etc display on it?

Absolutely. The HUD is one of the things that I'm most excited about utilizing in the F30. With navigation instructions, playlist scrolling, and current speed, I expect that at least half of the reasons to take one's eyes off the road are now eliminated.