BMW's new iDrive will predict what you want | FOS Future Lab

Now, brace yourself, everyone, for BMW has done it again. It is promising another revolution – a paradigm shift, it says – in how we all interact with our cars. It’s still called iDrive but is all new, cleverer, more powerful and, BMW promises, simpler to use. 

It takes BMW 3,500 words to explain all this in the press release with a long-windedness we sincerely hope is not shared by the operating system itself. It shouldn’t be, for the aim here is to simplify life with a “reduced to the essentials” approach rather than add more complication.

You can imagine what the keys words are: intuitive, pro-active, context-related, intelligent and multi-sensory. Yes, and “engaging on an emotional level” too. That would be the “meet and greet” light show when you walk up to the car then, along of course with your own named BMW personal assistant. 

It aims to be like some other systems now available on the market by doing a lot more of the thinking for you about which functions to turn on or off, based on recognising repetitive situations and driver routines.

There is more emphasis on dialogue-based control, using natural language, and touch operation via the BMW Curved Display than before. But you still get some buttons and switches, though BMW says the number of them has been reduced by almost half in the upcoming battery-electric iX SUV that is previewing the new iDrive. 

The actual iDrive controller is still big and round and, like the few physical buttons, where you expect to find it. An aesthetic refresh means that in the iX at least, it comes with a glass-effect finish and is encircled by a gold-coloured bronze bezel. 

Bling aside, the look overall is very on-trend minimalist. There’s typical BMW attention to screen clarity and graphics, a more powerful operating system, more personalisation options and improved connectivity and over-the-air software updates.

A new high point in human-machine interaction or a lot of hot air? The new iDrive will have plenty to prove, coming as it does at a time when for many drivers the shift to all-digital cabins and touch screen control of just about everything has gone too far. 

As ever with these systems the proof of the pudding will be in the i-Driving. The new system goes first into the iX due later this year, then the i4 and after that will be rolled out gradually across all BMW model ranges. 

One thing about it we can’t wait to sample: an algorithm that selects the cover colour scheme of the music track playing and reproduces it on screen. We just knew there had to be a point to those algorithms…

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