[thereef510]

a few more impressions:

- the drive path recorder feature in parking assistant is hands down the best feature of this LCI. I have a carport that was built in the 90s when cars werent as wide and its requires me to pay attention every time I pull in, and the driveway itself is curved. I taught the path to this car and it pulls in flawlessly every time. a tremendous feature. Really want this on my next car.

- the augmented reality view while driving is pretty cool, fairly useless but cool.

- the cooled seats actually blow cold air on you now. works way, way better than my pre-LCI. seats got so cold I had to turn it off.

- they removed the sensor on the idrive screen that would present buttons and options to click on when your finger got close to the screen. that was always a cool party trick

- in my car whenever you hovered over each of the seat adjustment buttons and the screen told you which part of the seat was going to be moved. They still have sensors, but not enough, as you move your finger up and down on each control, the screen isnt as specific about what each button does. another cost cutting move.

- the menus are somehow less customizable... You cant do tiles, or have multiple layouts. and why is live vehicle a tile to itself lol

- the headlights arent as bright as the pre-LCI.

- on my car, the turn signal lights are so bright I can see it reflecting off street signs and traffic lights. The turn signals on this x7 are much more muted.

- the scroll wheel on the right side of the steering wheel used to scroll songs lags a lot more when pulling up the playlist than the pre-LCI.

- the most infuriating part: i keep getting a 'distracted driver please pay attention' warning while in assisted driving mode (not assisted driving plus). I have my hands on the steering wheel but it still gives me the warning if my eyes aren't glued to the road. Even looking off the road to look at the idrive screen to turn on the climate controls in the screen (since they removed the buttons) triggers that distracted driver warning. it was so annoying on my long drive that I cant relax fully in my car because whenever im doing something the warning goes off. On mine, the distracted driver warning only comes up when using assisted driving plus, as long as your hand is on the wheel you can mess around with the idrive screen. they somehow made the assisted driving experience worse with this nanny cam.

[eelnoraa]

Originally Posted by thereef510

a few more impressions:

- the cooled seats actually blow cold air on you now. works way, way better than my pre-LCI. seats got so cold I had to turn it off.

- they removed the sensor on the idrive screen that would present buttons and options to click on when your finger got close to the screen. that was always a cool party trick

- in my car whenever you hovered over each of the seat adjustment buttons and the screen told you which part of the seat was going to be moved. They still have sensors, but not enough, as you move your finger up and down on each control, the screen isnt as specific about what each button does. another cost cutting move.

- the menus are somehow less customizable... You cant do tiles, or have multiple layouts. and why is live vehicle a tile to itself lol

- the headlights arent as bright as the pre-LCI.

- on my car, the turn signal lights are so bright I can see it reflecting off street signs and traffic lights. The turn signals on this x7 are much more muted.

- the augmented reality view while driving is pretty cool, fairly useless but cool.

- the scroll wheel on the right side of the steering wheel used to scroll songs lags a lot more when pulling up the playlist than the pre-LCI.

- the most infuriating part: i keep getting a 'distracted driver please pay attention' warning while in assisted driving mode (not assisted driving plus). I have my hands on the steering wheel but it still gives me the warning if my eyes aren't glued to the road. Even looking off the road to look at the idrive screen to turn on the climate controls [...]

Thank you for the update. It is always help to see specific and real feedback from users.

As for the cool seat, seems likely bmw finally got their head out of the dungeons, implemented the cool seat like how the industry has done, kind of admitting suck way really sucks, the blow way is the right way. 😂

[Heavyd]

Originally Posted by eelnoraa

Thank you for the update. It is always help to see specific and real feedback from users.

As for the cool seat, seems likely bmw finally got their head out of the dungeons, implemented the cool seat like how the industry has done, kind of admitting suck way really sucks, the blow way is the right way. 😂

The ventilated seats in my LCI still suck, meaning they don’t blow cold air As in the pre LCI.

[cobramite]

Originally Posted by Heavyd

The ventilated seats in my LCI still suck, meaning they don’t blow cold air As in the pre LCI.

Mine suck too. They blow in our Porsche.

[Rob_G77]

I just got my X5 40i back from service and it was updated to ID8.5 (11/2023.30).

I'm happy to say that one of my top pet peeves has been fixed! The trip information now goes away after several seconds where before you were stuck with it on the gauge cluster when you pushed the top button on the turn signal arm.

I haven't had time to play around with the rest, but as long as improvments continue to happen then I'm happy.

Rob

[Rob_G77]

Playing around with it more, I think ID8.5 took a BIG step backward with the home screen widgets and customization. You cannot really pick what widgets you want any more, except to just scroll through the list of what's available and leave it at a certain position showing whatever. You cannot re-order how widgets appear and if there are two you want and they are not next to each other in the list, there isn't anything you can do. You cannot even choose which side of the screen you want your widgets on. ID7 still did it best I think.

Remember how all the lighting turns red in sport mode? Well now the date widget text turns red too. That's just going too far with hardcoding changes that most users probably don't want happening.

Rob

[mscot]

Sorry, I was thinking app icons. Agreed on the widgets.

[thereef510]

Originally Posted by Rob_G77

I think ID8.5 took a BIG step backward with the home screen widgets and customization. You cannot really pick what widgets you want any more, except to just scroll through the list of what's available and leave it at a certain position showing whatever. You cannot re-order how widgets appear and if there are two you want and they are not next to each other in the list, there isn't anything you can do. You cannot even choose which side of the screen you want your widgets on.

100% agreed. I was excited to play around with iDrive 8.5 thinking with all this screen real estate, there would be many more customizable options for widgets. Nope. its all on the left side and like you said, you cant really move them around. Many of the widgets can be 'swiped' left or right to show additional information, but there's no way to access that from the idrive controller. you have to use your fingers, you cant somehow highlight it and use the controller. idrive 7 was way more well thought out, everything on the screen could be touched, or manipulated with the idrive dial.

I was able to find how to access rest stops on my route, but in idrive 7 there was a tile that would just show you rest stops, and construction, traffic on your route. there's no such tile here, you can get to it if you want to but its just not there by default. I never found a weather tile either, now that could be because my car hasnt been 'activated' by the dealer.

again, overall its nice and clean and gets the job done, but those of us who have used and loved idrive 7, this certainly is a step back when they could have done so much more with the additional screen real estate.

[Rob_G77]

Originally Posted by thereef510

100% agreed. I was excited to play around with iDrive 8.5 thinking with all this screen real estate, there would be many more customizable options for widgets. Nope. its all on the left side and like you said, you cant really move them around

I would like to think that BMW will address the limitations with widgets in a future update. ID8.6 anyone?

Rob

[X3_Alaska]

Interesting...
https://www.engadget.com/volkswagen-...044931087.html

In Autocar's Tiguan launch interview back in June, Volkswagen CEO Thomas Schäfer already acknowledged customers' criticism on the over-reliance on touch controls — namely on the Golf Mk8 and ID.3, not to mention the same trend across the motor industry. The exec went as far as saying the earlier touch-heavy approach — endorsed by his predecessor, Herbert Diess — "definitely did a lot of damage" in terms of customer loyalty.

[mscot]

Originally Posted by Alaska_X5

Interesting...
https://www.engadget.com/volkswagen-...044931087.html

Did you actually look at the video? There's probably the same amount of buttons in the LCI if not more. Just different layout and buttons.
The main problems I've ready with the VW ID cars isn't just buttons but that the OS has a bad UX.

[eelnoraa]

I ride in 50e yesterday in a company group lunch. A Coworker just bought one and showing us. I actually like the interior/ID8. It feels modern. I like AR. Edrive power is significantly above 45e. 50e feels like a proper EV while 45e feels like Nissan Leaf. 😂

Exterior is more of a mixed. I like the tail light better. But overall, I think preLCI has a better present, feels bigger. From far away, I almost think it is an x3. The front of LCI with laser headlight looks better IMO. The black mask of MSport package on light color doesn’t do it for me.

[1230vani]

How to get to AR to work again. Updated SW to 7/2023 and AR view is gone. Its gimmicky yes but dont like that its gone. Also dunno how to turn off the lights if the car is on . Coming from F15 with adaptive these adaptive m shadow line lights are meh…they look great but really nothing special whilst driving, that is my REAL dissapointment with this car. For many other things the car is abs great.

[swainbmw]

Originally Posted by geddylee

To be fair, if you put it in sport mode the steering is not as bad on the highway. Comfort is so light it borders on unsafe.

That might be pretty scary in snowy conditions..

[CeEl]

Originally Posted by Alaska_X5

Interesting...
https://www.engadget.com/volkswagen-...044931087.html

Just listened to a Freakonomics podcast about pedestrian safety. They cited studies that touch is more distracting than physical buttons.