[Stoshu]

Looking for peoples opinions here.

After a couple of months I find myself using them for radio control more and more. This is one of those options I didn’t think I’d use at all, its not a must have feature but maybe a nice to have one.

One issue I found this weekend though, due to COVID I really hadn’t had a passenger in the car. This weekend my girlfriend made Valentine’s Day reservations and we actually ate in a restaurant (adhering to social distancing and mask protocols). Well on the trip there and back she was constantly muting or adjusting the volume on the radio without knowing. I guess she talks with her hands more than I realized, she is Italian!

[PREDATOR 007]

I turned mine off about 2 days of having the vehicle. It kept interfering with my Valentine radar detector.

[Benztir]

Disabled after a week

[jg05]

I’m actually using them quite a bit. Honestly surprised as I thought they were a total gimmick. It’s just a little easier to do the gesture vs reaching for the dial on the dash to change volume. I don’t love the steering wheel controls but I am new to the car so I really haven’t built any muscle memory for them. May use the gestures less as I get used to the steering wheel controls once I’m driving more often.

I do find my self skipping tracks often when my wife is in the car. I guess I’m nowhere near as animated talking with my hands when I’m alone in the car. This is frustrating.

I did look at the menu to see if I could just turn off the skip track gesture but it’s all or nothing (plus the 2 ‘custom’ gestures).

By the way, what are people using those custom gestures for?(sorry, don’t want to hijack your thread!)

[SKBSY8]

Disabled after a week as well..............is pretty useless to me.

[Spencer518]

I just use it to change songs/channels. The volume adjustment is too dramatic, I accidentally mute it quite often and I can never get the 360 camera to work.

[Lual]

Giving it another month or so.

Not totally convinced other than to put up or down the volume.

Otherwise it activates when you do not want it to do it, like when you approach your fingers to the touch screen.

[smomin23]

It's alright for the volume control but the rest of it is something I find myself using more and more.

I think you have to force yourself to use it exclusively for a bit and develop muscle memory/habit. Once you do, it's pretty useful for some of the actions it supports

It also depends on your driving style. I naturally tend to keep my left hand on the wheel and rest my right hand on or near the shifter coincidentally putting it in just the right spot for the GC camera

[Unit]

I don’t mind it but I only really use it for flicking between tracks on Apple CarPlay. I don’t even swirl my fingers for volume as I default to the steering wheel controls for that.

[gofast182]

I don't always remember to use it but I'm a big fan of gesture control. It's just one more way BMW gives us to interact with the vehicle.

Be thankful we aren't stuck with the all-encompassing touch screens Land Rover and Audi are introducing, they require you to look away from the road and not every function is on the top menu.

I think your GF will learn to adjust once the music goes off enough. I've had passengers (and me) accidentally do a gesture before and it wasn't something we repeated after that.

[Benztir]

My hands are on the steering wheel and have a quick thumb access to music volume and previous or next songs. I don't even go to the dial most of the time.
The gestures were just gimmickee for me and sometimes picked up on gestures I didn't make.
Gone after the first week, ok maybe I waited 2 weeks lol

[MystroX5]

I use them all the time. I also find myself trying to use them in vehicles that don’t have it.

[Tenac]

Originally Posted by MystroX5

I use them all the time. I also find myself trying to use them in vehicles that don’t have it.

This!!!

At first thought it was a gimmick but quickly realized its faster, easier to just do the gesture. I don't even have muscle memory of the actual buttons anymore..

[denaliman]

Mute gesture is actually one of the options in the menu. Go into gesture control in the menu and turn off the one that is preset for the "mute". That's what i did "do nothing". All others still work. You can assign gesture control in the menu to what ever you want.

[nZtiZia]

I completely disabled the two-finger-screen approach GC (default mute) since I naturally tend to touch my screen and other console buttons like that and didn't want to inadvertently cause an action.

my right hand usually rests on the gear shift, so it's in the GC zone. I mainly use volume up/down (have learned to do half circles very well now) and skip fwd/back. when listening to the radio, I wish the skip fwd/back GC flipped through my preset stations instead of the adjacent stations.

I programmed open-close-open hand to navigate home.

[kkratochvil]

I tried it for about a month when I first got it 11 months ago. Didn't like it and turned it off.

Turned it back on after my last SW upgrade to 07/2020 and turned it off again after just a few days.

Honestly, I'm used to using the steering wheel controls and iDrive controller. The only thing I'd like it for is "mute", but that's the one gesture that's most annoying, as I accidentally mute it all the time! (Wish there was a mute on the steering wheel...)

[DCwell3er]

I only use it to turn up/down the volume every now and then. Otherwise, I don't even use it.

[-Vanguard-]

Disabled mine because it keep muting my radio thinking I was doing the 2 finger gesture when it was just picking up shadows from my badge hanging on the rear-view mirror.

[codex57]

I thought it was a stupid gimmick, but I'm one that is surprised at how often I use it.

On long drives, apparently I like to hold the steering wheel with my left hand and rest my right arm on the center armrest. That puts my hand in perfect position to do the hand gestures.

Also, while the steering wheel controls are better than the X3's layout, half the buttons still don't fall easily under my thumb so the gesture controls turn out to be easier for me.

Hey, better to have more options than none. Especially if you can just turn them off or ignore them if you don't like them.

[Beemertj]

Originally Posted by PREDATOR 007

I turned mine off about 2 days of having the vehicle. It kept interfering with my Valentine radar detector.

Is that the "LASER" false'n mine too?

[MB_F31]

My wife loves its and uses it all the time ... I teased her about it being a gimmick and somewhat funny to witness, her spinning her fingers around, and her reply was pretty great "Most new technology is a gimmick to people who don't like it, use it or see it's value."

Amen to that!

[gofast182]

It seems most people have an issue with the mute gesture.

Don't throw the baby out with the bath water and turn gestures off, that's silly.

As someone else mentioned you can reassign or turn individual gestures on or off.