RXSF

I know mercedes has been shipping vehicles without specific features, most notably the augmented reality navigation camera/feature. They simply deduct some monies from the package, but it sucks if you want those features.

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

You could try this motorized etch-a-sketch instead.


voice commands... no biggie. Or i love how my lc500 just turns on heated/cooled seats automatically via the climate concierge feature.

patgilm

BMW has the same climate feature to turn on the heated seats and steering wheel but I have always loved hard buttons for both. In my old Durango the heated seats were two menus deep in the touchscreen and it annoyed the heck out of me. They did fix it in the 2021 refresh so maybe other owners were as annoyed as me.

Och

iTrader: (3)

I never use the touchscreen in BMWs anyway, it is such a lousy interface, BMW only provided it to appease Toyota buyers switching to BMW. They had absolutely perfected their infotainment interface with the **** in idrive versions 2-6, but then they caved in and idrive 7 is a bloated clusterpluck, and if they are getting rid of the **** all together in favor of touchscreen in idrive 8, they are finished.

There is a good reason why Apple does not do touch screen on their laptops - they have perfected the magic touchpad, and no matter how hard windows laptop manufacturers try to imitate it they can't come close.

shadow1118

Its a shame touch screens were added to vehicles. These only increase accidents and not decrease them. Industrial organizational psychologists working in the military reported that more helicopter crashes occurred because pilots took their eyes off the flightpath? to look at the screen and that caused more accidents in war zones. This is a step in the right direction. Sadly, the b/s marketing teams ran with this idea without doing any research. OH MY GOSH LOOK ITS LIKE YOUR IPAD AT HOME BUT NOW IN YOUR CAR!1!!11!! Absolutely unreal garbage marketing and we will probably never know the true number of accidents caused by touchscreens. We need to go back to gauges and require some sort of feature that disables phones in the vehicles. surely the older guys will laugh at that but im 27 and you just have no idea how dumb my generation is. we were the coddled generation. /endrant

tex2670

This is a great point. My BMW has iDrive pre-touch screen - I don't miss that capability at all - it's the other way around. When I drive my wife's car, I wish it had a controller **** like iDrive.

703

I’m surprised BMW didn’t charge more for the non touch screen.

“Your BMW now comes with DC+ (Driver Control +) package, a feature that allows you to focus more on the road, less on the screen” - $2000

xjokerz

That BMW is the ugliest thing I've ever seen. Touchscreens do not belong in cars. I don't know how many times I have to say it. They are a much bigger distraction with that carplay garbage than me holding my basic phone and making a 5 minute conversation, yet I'm actually liable for a ticket whereas the idiot with all their focus on their mounted cell phone and giant car screen etc get off scott-free.

TangoRed

The marketing teams were well aware of the research. The Germans were getting feedback from customers that their **** + screen solutions seemed outdated compared to the touchscreens in other cars and they felt forced to follow along with the trend. Shame, really.

Motorola

The driver safety arguments are pointless. It really makes no difference whether you use a touchscreen or a screen with a dial, either option requires you to look down at the screen and off the road to operate it. However you want to milk it, screens will never go away from any modern vehicle- we've had them for 30 years.

703

there is a difference, measured in milliseconds and the severity of zoned out concentration lapse.

Motorola

If you want to go there you would also have to take into account the different types of touch and dial interfaces. i.e. the Lexus touchpad compared to the BMW iDrive ****. Even touchscreens can't be all considered the same when you have something like the Tesla interface compared to the dual screen dinosaurs in Infinitis.

No matter which one you pick, you will have to pay attention to the screen and take your eyes of the road.

TangoRed

Partially disagree- the benchmarking done by several manufacturers noted that there is a significant difference in time spent distracted by touchscreens vs. the ****. That's the reason why Mazda was so adamant about keeping the screen out of reach and why Germans were slow to migrate to the touchscreen trend. Customer perception won out though and I agree touchscreens are here to stay.

Allen K

iTrader: (4)

Using the **** with CarPlay in a rental CX-5 was the worst experience I've had in a long time. That one definitely would've taken my eyes off the road the most if I didn't load everything up in the parking lot.

shadow1118

If there were multiple gauges for different functions, then you can just memorize which ones were which and never take your eyes off the road which is safer. Thats why in the military a lot of helicopters got rid of touch screens and went back to gauges. too many accidents