BMW’s latest and greatest infotainment system doesn’t need knobs, man. The automaker announced Monday that it would show off its concept for infotainment next month, dubbed “AirTouch.”
The system, which improves upon the one-finger wagging, waving and gesticulating already in its new 7-Series sedan, would use sensors between the dash and rearview mirror to interpret what your five fingers were looking for.
Was that a phone call that you wanted to make? Did you want the BMW to switch to radio? Activate navigation to direct you home? Oh, you were just waving at that guy. Gotcha.
BMW will announce the new system at the Consumer Electronics Show next month in Las Vegas.
According to the company, both driver and passenger will have a button that would confirm movements by either person — in case you were just waving at some guy.
The automaker said the system would work similarly to a touchpad, without the screen. So, in other words, you wouldn’t have to learn a system in Minority Report style.
Will the BMW know to apply the horn when something adjacent to the index finger is displayed?
Oh, man, that would be fantastic. Especially if the lane-keep assist would keep the car going straight while you did a double-middle-finger-salute and the car honked for you. BMW, take my money!
I guess we will need all this infotainment stuff since we won’t actually be driving in the future.
How many of you actually used the new BMW 7-series “touch-less” gestures?
I made a video of a test drive.
Guy tried to use it. It wasn’t intuitive.
He ended up just reaching for the real knob.
Infra-red is a stupid system to base these things on.
I haven’t tried it, but the current basic iDrive is both easy to use and intuitive. IMO, BMW would be better served just polishing that some more.
BMW would be better served adopting regular touch screens.
There’s no interface faster or more intuitive than a touch screen.
Steve Jobs was 100% right.
The physical knobs are good backup.
I hate touch screens in cars. I have had a few Audi’s with MMI, and my current F30 with iDrive, and to me they work very well.
Provided you are looking at said touch screen this is true. Course there is that littleanner of, you know, driving the car.
Jazz hands
Well, guess all italians and latinos need never buy a BMW again. All the gesturing we do in the course of a regular conversation will surely send the car into a hedge.
Now, if they can just supply the turn signals as standard equipment, and no option for the “_______ Delete”.
Cars do not work on six-month product lifetimes and Moore’s Law the way electronics do. Even the fanciest-lad rides from 2013-2014 have infotainment displays/UX/computational power that feel more Boost Mobile burner-phone than anything ‘premium’ now.
Rides need an open-standard connector one can plug successive gizmos into over the vehicle lifetime instead of hard-integrated gizmos that are outdated after only one year in the wild.
You got that right. Then again, aren’t most BMWs leases these days? By the time the electronics are stale, the lease is up and it’s time to move on. For those of us who keep cars for a long time, it would be nice to have interfaces that are easy to upgrade. My phone has better tech that my wife’s ’14 My Ford Touch.
How about reset button, actual button. Just in case the thing hangs. You mad gesturing may also scare other drivers esp in Russia where mob drives expensive cars. Police may think you point the gun even if your are not black – so be careful.
But will it alert you to a red ball?
(“Minority Report” was freakin’ BRILLIANT, folks…)