BMW chose the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) going on this week in Las Vegas, Nevada to introduce its latest version of iDrive. This newest iteration of BMW’s controller interface features a touchscreen and something called gesture control.
When it was introduced, BMW’s iDrive user interface had no shortage of detractors—from computer-illiterate drivers to Luddite auto journalists to savvy users who thought it just too clunky. They had a point; the first iDrive was a good idea but it was not as intuitive and easy to learn as it should have been. That was fourteen years ago and the iDrive of today is pretty easy to use and even incorporates a mini-touchpad on the top of the controller—for writing numbers and letters and such. So that’s good.
Voice control has been available for many years but has never really taken off. Drivers are frustrated by a voice system’s inability to get every single command right—like voice-controlled computers in the movies do. You never heard the Enterprise’s computer asking Captain Kirk to repeat his commands or select from a menu of available options, did you? So it's no surprise that BMW looked in a different direction for methods of input using iDrive as the starting point.
The newest version of iDrive—which at the CES, BMW is cryptically calling a research application—combines the traditional iDrive controller wheel with a display that is a touchscreen, is larger that previous screens, and also responds to hand gestures without touching the screen.
This version of iDrive allows users a choice of either scrolling through playlists or navigation addresses using the iDriveController or entering numbers directly on the touchscreen. A virtual keyboard appears on the touchscreen as soon as the user’s hand approaches it. Even while entering letters or numbers the user can switch at any time between the iDrive Controller, the iDrive Controller touchpad, and the touchscreen.
BMW has taken notice that most tablets and smart phones these days respond to hand gestures on the screens, so they figured out a way to allow users to input commands using hand gestures in mid-air—without touching the screen at all. The driver or front passenger can make a hand gesture in the cockpit area between the gear lever, steering wheel, and Control Display. A 3D sensor in the roof detects whether one or two fingers are being pointed, or whether the thumb and index finger are being moved towards each other. The system interprets different movements such as tapping, finger rotations, or a swiping movement to the right, and sends the appropriate command. For example, moving the hand in a rotating or circular motion can increase or decrease the sound system’s volume. Raising a finger when the phone rings accepts the call; swiping the hand declines the call.
Sure, you can perform the same functions by pressing buttons on the steering wheel, but using hand gestures means not having to take your eyes off the road to look for a button.
The people in the back can also get in on the new interface. Touch Command is basically a tablet available to the rear seat occupants that connects to the car's infotainment system via Wi-Fi.
If BMW intends to put this system into a production car in the near future, we would guess the next-generation 7 Series that will debut later this year would be the prime candidate. —Scott Blazey
This video from CNET shows BMW’s Dr. Verena Reischl explaining the system.
[Photos courtesy of BMW AG. Video courtesy of CNET.]
