BMW and M Power Owners

Not that they show you much of the products/features to "look amazing" :p But the tech sounds amazing yeah. I want to see what that remote LCD fob looks like and how the system works.

Cannot imagine it being cheap to replace if you break it by accidentally dropping it and the LCD cracks!
 
Curious to see how they integrate the touch screen and if they do away with the iDrive controller. Really hope they don't as I'm yet to see a touch screen interface in cars that is actually usable when driving along, whereas with the iDrive controller it's very easy to scroll through folders of music etc when driving.

Also they must be moving the screens closer to the driver in the new generation, I can barely reach the volume knob in my car, let alone the nav screen :p
 
Voxination said:
Curious to see how they integrate the touch screen and if they do away with the iDrive controller. Really hope they don't as I'm yet to see a touch screen interface in cars that is actually usable when driving along, whereas with the iDrive controller it's very easy to scroll through folders of music etc when driving.

Also they must be moving the screens closer to the driver in the new generation, I can barely reach the volume knob in my car, let alone the nav screen :p
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I hope they will have both touch screen and the iDrive controller, I find touch screen much quicker when the car is stationary to do tasks also good on the move with large radio preset buttons & large customisable phone number shortcuts other than that everything else on the move is better with controller or steering wheel controls. A perfect system for me would be to have both.
 
I've used touch screens in rental cars and they are awful on the move - iDrive's controller works perfectly.

I just hope they've resisted the temptation to make it look like your a hipster with an iPad taped to the dash.
 
[TW]Fox;27930258 said:
I've used touch screens in rental cars and they are awful on the move - iDrive's controller works perfectly.
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Some are truly awful - notably the recent French offerings.

I like mine though, as the 'core' controls are hard buttons, and the fact that you can do most things with the steering wheel controls is nice.


[TW]Fox;27930258 said:
I just hope they've resisted the temptation to make it look like your a hipster with an iPad taped to the dash.
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You of all people :eek:
 
if it's a small touchscreen then they're a pain to use on the move, but if it's a decent size like in the tesla model s they're actually quite good as the buttons are large!

never once in the hour i was driving the model S did i think that the touchscreen was a drawback
 
mjt said:
Come off it, even my S3 under steers like a pig and that's without a heavy diesel lump in front of the front axle!
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Honestly I hardly see the traction control light come on. It just grips and grips round the bends. Go drive one without questioning me about it all the time please.
 
[TW]Fox;27930590 said:
Type in a postcode? Surely you just send a destination to the car from Google maps on your smartphone?
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The touchscreens used in those cars, are they resistive or capacitive? I ask because I've used both types and I always find the former to be unergonomic and often misses keys when typing in say a postcode or searching for a location.

My nav screen is capacitive and it runs an older OS with lower spec than newer competing units, yet typing is just as fast and accurate as the latest smartphones. There must be a suitable reason why they mostly use resistive screens over capacitive. All the new VWs I have been in have capacitive resistive, for example.

Edit*
Whoops fixed the error above!
 
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[TW]Fox;27930590 said:
Type in a postcode? Surely you just send a destination to the car from Google maps on your smartphone?
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Your joking right? I am lucky that the car has bluetooth and you do not have to put the sim card in to the head unit anymore.

Even the rear wiper, heated seats and parking sensors are all expensive options.
 
mrk said:
The touchscreens used in those cars, are they resistive or capacitive? I ask because I've used both types and I always find the former to be unergonomic and often misses keys when typing in say a postcode or searching for a location.

My nav screen is capacitive and it runs an older OS with lower spec than newer competing units, yet typing is just as fast and accurate as the latest smartphones. There must be a suitable reason why they mostly use resistive screens over capacitive. All the new VWs I have been in have capacitive, for example.
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I think its resistive on the Porsche
 
Dr House said:
I think its resistive on the Porsche
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I think almost all in car nav systems with touch screens are resistive. It's all about cost, and capacitive (until relatively recently) just adds too much cost, but now that it's widely used in volume for smart phones and tablets, and screens in those are getting larger it will filter through to the automotive market.
 
Havana_UK said:
I think almost all in car nav systems with touch screens are resistive. It's all about cost, and capacitive (until relatively recently) just adds too much cost, but now that it's widely used in volume for smart phones and tablets, and screens in those are getting larger it will filter through to the automotive market.
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I can't imagine using capacitive screens in cars though as sometimes you'll be wearing gloves and want to us the touchscreen...
 
mjt said:
I can't imagine using capacitive screens in cars though as sometimes you'll be wearing gloves and want to us the touchscreen...
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You can do just that without any issues? All Android smartphones made in the last few years have a "glove mode" that you can toggle, I've been using it on cold morning walks to work and it works great wearing gloves.

No reason why that feature cannot be added to car screens too using the same screen technology.
 
mrk said:
You can do just that without any issues? All Android smartphones made in the last few years have a "glove mode" that you can toggle, I've been using it on cold morning walks to work and it works great wearing gloves.

No reason why that feature cannot be added to car screens too using the same screen technology.
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Fair enough! I just did a quick google of capacitive v resistive touch screens :p
 
Granted of course it's a different story if someone is wearing gloves so thick that you'd expect to see them in an arctic expedition :p
 
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