[Barbja]

     Featured on BIMMERPOST.com

First, as a level-set, I currently have an X4 M40i with iDrive7. That car is peppy. I have had cars with iDrive5, 6, and 7.

Before I test drive cars from any manufacturer, I sit in the car and test out its usability. If it isn't usable, I don't even drive it. Does it hold my cups? Does it integrate well with my phone? Does the nav input work well without voice? Does the nav input work well with voice?

I had an opportunity to test drive an iX on Monday, but not for very long because people were piled up at my dealer; it was the first day they go it in.

For the ride: I found that it was acceptable. More body roll than I would have liked. Less than an X6 without dynamic handling, but more than with. The acceleration was about the same as my car as far as I can tell, but I'm an aggressive driver.

I don't even remember the quietness because I was so annoyed by: iDrive8. I wouldn't have even taken this car out for a test drive had it not been a brand spanky new all-electric SUV thingy from BMW.

1. Start the car and go...
2. The lumbar was out too far on the seat. There's no manual control for the lumbar.
3. Ok: "lumbar settings" : massage settings
4. "seat settings" : massage settings
5. "lumbar settings" again : massage settings
6. check to see if there is something there that sets it. Perhaps there is, but I'm driving the car.
7. abort
8. I can't see the HUD with my sunglasses. The brightness needs to be cranked to max.
9. "HUD settings" : audio settings
10. "head up display settings" (said normally) : (something else stupid)
11. "heas ... up ... display ... settings" : (same somthing stupid)
12. ok, I guess I don't get to see the HUD cuz I'm not going to dig in the iDrive
13. lets test the nav
14. "highland lanes" : got it right
15. "11501 burnet road" (eleven five oh one) : displays a list of like 12 things (in my car, it will set the nav and go)
16. ok: "11501 burnet road austin texas" : "say the address like blah whatever in city state" (or something like that)
17. I try again : same thing
18. I try again, only slower : same thing
19. I'm silent : it repeats itself
20. So now I'm not happy and say "shut up" : it repeats itself yet again (my car will say OK and stop talking)
    • This is one of the best things about iDrive7 in my opinion . I laughed out loud the first time that happened.
    • The other one is 'take me home' takes me home and has a set of different responses it will give you like, "we're going home", "it's good to be home", etc.
21. At this point I turn around and go back to the dealer
22. While I'm driving back, I try "audio settings", the first time it goes somewhere wrong, the second time I say it slower and it works.

When I got back to the dealer, I was beyond annoyed. Any joy that could have been derived from driving this car was completely eclipsed by the absolute horror of the iDrive8. Its like they based it off of iDrive6 instead of iDrive7. Competely nuts.

When I got back in my car to go home, I tried everything that went wrong in the iX, and they worked (except lumbar of course). HUD was "head up display". Also, the response lag was about 1/2 the time. I mean lag after the command, not before. I don't say "hey bmw"; I use the button on the wheel (I would want it to be slower because why?). I think perhaps 'hey bmw' is for your kids to mess with you from the back seat. "hey bmw, increase tempertature 20 degrees". "hey bmw, navigate to disneyland".

Perhaps iDrive8 will get better as time goes on with subsequent updates. As it stands now, its not nearly as good as their >2yo OS. How is that OK for a car where almost all the buttons were moved into the software?

BTW: please do not suggest that I use car play. I hate using car play as a nav -- I want my nav to work without having to reboot my phone. Or reboot my phone, get out of the car, lock it, unlock it, re-pair the phone, drive to my destination -- all from the stop sign at the end of my street.

Aside: I wish the seats were multi-contour. The iX seats were more comfortable than my X4-sport-brick seats, but nearly as wonderful as those oh-so-comfortable, I'd-buy-a-new-car-for-them, multi-contour seats. I've had 3 cars for with them for 10y and I miss them every day.

[nosnoop]

Originally Posted by Barbja

When I got back to the dealer, I was beyond annoyed. Any joy that could have been derived from driving this car was completely eclipsed by the absolute horror of the iDrive8. Its like they based it off of iDrive6 instead of iDrive7. Competely nuts.

My experience was much better than yours.
Is it possible that the online speech processing was turned off?

BTW: please do not suggest that I use car play. I hate using car play as a nav -- I want my nav to work without having to reboot my phone. Or reboot my phone, get out of the car, lock it, unlock it, re-pair the phone, drive to my destination -- all from the stop sign at the end of my street.

No clue what you are talking about regarding rebooting or repairing iPhones.
CarPlay has been working flawlessly with iDrive 7. Is your iDrive 7 software and iPhone firmware up to date?

[Paladin1]

I wouldn't actually suggest anything, because it sounds like it's not your cup of tea. Time to move on. You will have a problem in the future however, because iDrive 7 will go away eventually....

[Needsdecaf]

IMO, I have yet to meet a voice control system that's worth a damn. It's not hard to learn the menus on a touch screen after a few minutes. And 95% of those things only get touched once, or are saved to your profile and change with other drivers.

I can understand your frustration but I wouldn't get turned off by it. But it sounds like it's too late.

[hugo_nz]

My experience was 100% the opposite. No trouble at all with the system understanding me and of the major manufacturers BMW makes the best voice assistant by far.

Also, lumbar support: press seat menu key on the door panel

[sahajesh]

Get the complaints but most of those are one-off setups.

Agree re voice commands, I get frustrated with iDrive 7 in this regard. Can't compare them to other brands but BMW isn't great (for me).

[asrgt]

Funny enough I had the same issue in the demo I drove.

No matter what the command was the car failed miserably, when I got back to the dealer I asked them to try it and it worked flawlessly

The second time I was given the car for the day and had no issues, I have no idea if a software update happened between the two times I drove it however both times the car was using a guest account so.... no idea.

[02M3ForMe]

Sounds like learning curve stuff and initial setup. As with any major upgrade, it pays to take the 20-30 minutes to go through all of the menus to familiarize yourself with the system and configure things as desired. It’s a ~$100k device with a myriad of functions, some complexity is expected.

I find iDrive 8, along with the new screen setup, to be a nice upgrade over 7. More screen real estate, better and clearer graphics.

[grueber]

One of the major limitations on the test drive is you can’t connect to the IX with a personalized login. Having customized settings would avoid a lot of the button tapping on a guest login.

[ggalanis]

Originally Posted by Barbja

First, as a level-set, I currently have an X4 M40i with iDrive7. That car is peppy. I have had cars with iDrive5, 6, and 7.

Before I test drive cars from any manufacturer, I sit in the car and test out its usability. If it isn't usable, I don't even drive it. Does it hold my cups? Does it integrate well with my phone? Does the nav input work well without voice? Does the nav input work well with voice?

I had an opportunity to test drive an iX on Monday, but not for very long because people were piled up at my dealer; it was the first day they go it in.

For the ride: I found that it was acceptable. More body roll than I would have liked. Less than an X6 without dynamic handling, but more than with. The acceleration was about the same as my car as far as I can tell, but I'm an aggressive driver.

I don't even remember the quietness because I was so annoyed by: iDrive8. I wouldn't have even taken this car out for a test drive had it not been a brand spanky new all-electric SUV thingy from BMW.

1. Start the car and go...
2. The lumbar was out too far on the seat. There's no manual control for the lumbar.
3. Ok: "lumbar settings" : massage settings
4. "seat settings" : massage settings
5. "lumbar settings" again : massage settings
6. check to see if there is something there that sets it. Perhaps there is, but I'm driving the car.
7. abort
8. I can't see the HUD with my sunglasses. The brightness needs to be cranked to max.
9. "HUD settings" : audio settings
10. "head up display settings" (said normally) : (something else stupid)
11. "heas ... up ... display ... settings" : (same somthing stupid)
12. ok, I guess I don't get to see the HUD cuz I'm not going to dig in the iDrive
13. lets test the nav
14. "highland lanes" : got it right
15. "11501 burnet road" (eleven five oh one) : displays a list of like 12 things (in my car, it will set the nav and go)
16. ok: "11501 burnet road austin texas" : "say the address like blah whatever in city state" (or something like that)
17. I try again : same thing
18. I try again, only slower : same thing
19. I'm silent : it repeats itself
20. So now I'm not happy and say "shut up" : it repeats itself yet again (my car will say OK and stop talking)
    • This is one of the best things about iDrive7 in my opinion . I laughed out loud the first time that happened.
    • The other one is 'take me home' takes me home and has a set of different responses it will give you like, "we're going home", "it's good to be home", etc.
21. At this point I turn around and go back to the dealer
22. While I'm driving back, I try "audio settings", the first time it goes somewhere wrong, the second time I say it slower and it works.

When I got back to the dealer, I was beyond annoyed. Any joy that could have been derived from driving this car was completely eclipsed by the absolute horror of the iDrive8. Its like they based it off of iDrive6 instead of iDrive7. Competely nuts.

When I got back in my car to go home, I tried everything that went wrong in the iX, and they worked (except lumbar of course). HUD was "head up display". Also, the response lag was about 1/2 the time. I mean lag after the command, not before. I don't say "hey bmw"; I use the button on the wheel (I would want it to be slower because why?). I think perhaps 'hey bmw' is for your kids to mess with you from the back seat. "hey bmw, increase tempertature 20 degrees". "hey bmw, navigate to disneyland".

Perhaps iDrive8 will get better as time goes on with subsequent updates. As it stands now, its not nearly as good as their >2yo OS. How is that OK for a car where almost all the buttons were moved into the software?

BTW: please do not suggest that I use car play. I hate using car play as a nav -- I want my nav to work without having to reboot my phone. Or reboot my phone, get out of the car, lock it, unlock it, re-pair the phone, drive to my destination -- all from the stop sign at the end of my street.

Aside: I wish the seats were multi-contour. The iX seats were more comfortable than my X4-sport-brick seats, but nearly as wonderful as those oh-so-comfortable, I'd-buy-a-new-car-for-them, multi-contour seats. I've had 3 cars for with them for 10y and I miss them every day.

I feel like you focused waaaaay too much on the voice recognition/commands. There is more to idrive 8 than that. But clearly for you, it was an important item. I would have tested that separately, not during a drive, tweak settings if there are any like the aforementioned online speech processing and test out how it reacts.

You mentioned you wish the seats were the multi-contour seats. I have the multi contour seats in my X5 and I found the seats in the iX noticeably more comfortable. The tradeoff being that they won't be as supportive if you start driving aggressively. In this kind of vehicle, I'd rather be more comfortable because although it is quick, I would not call it sporty.

[LittleJoe]

Originally Posted by ggalanis

I feel like you focused waaaaay too much on the voice recognition/commands. There is more to idrive 8 than that. But clearly for you, it was an important item. I would have tested that separately, not during a drive, tweak settings if there are any like the aforementioned online speech processing and test out how it reacts.

You mentioned you wish the seats were the multi-contour seats. I have the multi contour seats in my X5 and I found the seats in the iX noticeably more comfortable. The tradeoff being that they won't be as supportive if you start driving aggressively. In this kind of vehicle, I'd rather be more comfortable because although it is quick, I would not call it sporty.

I agree, during our test drive we focused on the driving characteristics of the iX. I do however plan to give our dealers demo iX a more comprehensive look. I'll spend some quality time with iDrive 8 and ask if I can create a temporary profile so the system works to its full potential, and then delete it when we're finished. If I remember, I'll take my golf clubs along to see for myself if the fit in the iX. These are important considerations that can't be fully answered during a short test drive.

[Bird~Dawg]

Funnily enough, both times I took an IX out the lumbar was sticking into my back too much. Took only about 30 seconds to get it adjusted the first time, whilst sitting in the lot getting seat, mirrors adjusted, as you do. Second time around it was as quick as it would be in my X5. New systems require some learning and familiarization time, that's normal and to be expected.

[ggalanis]

Originally Posted by LittleJoe

I agree, during our test drive we focused on the driving characteristics of the iX. I do however plan to give our dealers demo iX a more comprehensive look. I'll spend some quality time with iDrive 8 and ask if I can create a temporary profile so the system works to its full potential, and then delete it when we're finished. If I remember, I'll take my golf clubs along to see for myself if the fit in the iX. These are important considerations that can't be fully answered during a short test drive.

Same for me. What I wanted to verify more than anything in my test drive was the ride. Frankly, I was worried that the ride was going to be like the Teslas I have been in before (S, 3 ,Y) and was happy to see that all the positive reviews I had seen were spot on. The roads around here are pretty crummy so that was a concern and although my X5 ride is very good, the iX was on another level.

For idrive8, I have seen enough videos about it to know it will come with a bit of a learning curve, but that it is mostly logically laid out in a familiar idrive kind of way. The voice control is not important to me and the most we use it for is literally to see how bad it interprets what we ask for. I ask it for directions to some place like "Chocolats Favoris" and it routes us to The Chocolate Bar in Idaho. We all get a good laugh when I tell the kids it will be a 40 hour drive to get a snack.

[SteveinArizona]

Originally Posted by Paladin1

I wouldn't actually suggest anything, because it sounds like it's not your cup of tea. Time to move on. You will have a problem in the future however, because iDrive 7 will go away eventually....

I agree that it appears it is not your cup of tea. I gather that you have not had a HUD before because it is well known that polarized sunglasses block out the HUD, especially when driving into the sun. This is true for all cars. But the solution is also well known, simply get a pair of tinted but not polarized sun glasses.

I am going to have test drives next week. I also have put down a deposit on a Lucid Air Pure which looks like a very viable alternative (I think it needs some time to work out its gremlins but I am not looking to replace my 2018 530e until 2023 or 2024).

[cruzer666]

Originally Posted by grueber

One of the major limitations on the test drive is you can't connect to the IX with a personalized login. Having customized settings would avoid a lot of the button tapping on a guest login.

I was able to connect with my personalized login in like 15 seconds during the test drive and disconnect after I was done. Fairly straightforward .

[hugo_nz]

Originally Posted by cruzer666

I was able to connect with my personalized login in like 15 seconds during the test drive and disconnect after I was done. Fairly straightforward .

Likewise. I logged in no problem an it restored the settings I had saved on my old x5 (where possible).

[grueber]

Originally Posted by cruzer666

I was able to connect with my personalized login in like 15 seconds during the test drive and disconnect after I was done. Fairly straightforward .

Are you able to customize the IX settings with your login?

I was talking about having a login as if you owned the IX and have it linked to your smartphone.

[sor]

I know you don't use CarPlay, but honestly this is one of the reasons I do. I can hop into another car and have the same experience I always have as far as nav and entertainment. It makes me feel at home in the car. I used it in my X3 M40i wirelessly with no issue, in countless rental cars, in my Audi e-tron, and I'm excited to see the the better nav integration in the iX.

Doesn't help you if you've already decided it isn't for you, and doesn't help for car settings, and that seems pretty important in a car with no physical buttons.

I never really got into using voice control whether my X3 or the e-tron. It's just not that often that I need to go tweak the car settings. Occasionally I'll use Siri for texting. I did however get into gesture control, using it mainly to switch songs.

Honestly I thought the seat controls were on the door : but maybe not lumbar.

[sor]

Originally Posted by SteveinArizona

I agree that it appears it is not your cup of tea. I gather that you have not had a HUD before because it is well known that polarized sunglasses block out the HUD, especially when driving into the sun. This is true for all cars. But the solution is also well known, simply get a pair of tinted but not polarized sun glasses.

I am going to have test drives next week. I also have put down a deposit on a Lucid Air Pure which looks like a very viable alternative (I think it needs some time to work out its gremlins but I am not looking to replace my 2018 530e until 2023 or 2024).

Sometimes you get lucky with the angles and polarized sunglasses merely make the HUD illegible or dim it significantly, but yeah, that one is a pretty standard problem that isn't worth knocking the iX specifically on.

I got a dedicated pair of driving sunglasses the first time I bought a car with HUD.

[Bird~Dawg]

Originally Posted by sor

Sometimes you get lucky with the angles and polarized sunglasses merely make the HUD illegible or dim it significantly, but yeah, that one is a pretty standard problem that isn't worth knocking the iX specifically on.

I got a dedicated pair of driving sunglasses the first time I bought a car with HUD.

I did the same. At the time, the sunglasses market was pretty much flooded with polarized lenses so it took a while to find something I liked and that had neutral grey lenses. They live in my car now. I recall that the HUD in my 2018 X5 was useable with polarized lenses, just not as crisp and clear. Maybe the tech has changed a bit since then.

[Paladin1]

Conventional HUD technology is a projected reflection off your windscreen. Which, guess what, polarized lenses are designed to reduce or eliminate (reflected light that isn't perpendicular to your retina, a simplified explanation - if you turn your polarized glasses 90 degrees you will find that the HUD is visible, but so then is road glare). Most HUDs are therefore seen as a "glare" from the windscreen, filtered out by polarized lenses: there is some interesting - and complicated - technology in the works that might change that, but requires a complete redesign of HUD technology. There are also some "polarized" sunglasses made that are - almost - polarized, that make the HUD - almost - visible (BMW has a brand). Stand by for more news....

[venom21]

So I noticed on the Autogeufuel walkaround the I7 gets a youtube app ala Spotify on the center screen. Any chance this comes over to the IX via software update?