Under normal circumstances, you would expect an infotainment system to improve in every way as it transitions from one version to another. Screens become more responsive, brighter and clearer. The software has been modified to be better and you get more options than before. That’s the way it should work, but BMW’s iDrive 8 doesn’t follow this line of thought.
It pains me to say this too, because I’m easily the biggest proponent of iDrive 7 on the staff here at Autoblog. There’s a perfect mix of hard controls and touchscreen controls for vital vehicle functions, and the iDrive button connects everything in happy harmony. The software itself is interference-free, reacts super fast and the menu structure is logical. Most of us on staff agree that these are all big pluses for iDrive 7, including my co-writer for this piece, Senior Editor James Riswick.
Both Riswick and I (Road Test Editor Zac Palmer) spent several weeks in new BMW i4s with iDrive 8, and we came away with similar complaints.
Zac’s take
Unfortunately, iDrive 8 takes many of the best features of iDrive 7 and then throws them out the window completely for a replacement that’s worse. What the vast majority of my grievances boil down to is added complexity to perform tasks. Something that could have been done with a single tap in an iDrive 7 equipped BMW now requires more than three or more taps. Take the climate control, for example. BMW removed all hard-core climate controls from the center console, except front and rear defrost, and then put them in a new ‘climate menu’. The temperature control remains docked to the bottom of the touchscreen, but activating your heated seats requires a trip through the climate menu. The same goes for the fan speed, the direction of the fan and everything else you can think of: climate control. It’s predictable, it’s more time consuming to operate and much trickier to play with while driving than the fancy row of buttons BMW used before.
Then there are the BMW Dynamic Stability Control settings. There’s still a hard button on the center console that you can tap to put it into “Sport Traction” mode (our favorite for avid motoring), but instead of just tapping the button, you now have to press the tap the button and then tap the touchscreen twice more to fully activate Sport Traction. Why!?
@autoblog BMW’s iDrive 8 infotainment system is in many ways a step backwards #BMW #carsoftiktok ♬ original sound AllNews
Meanwhile, the new settings “menu” is a maze of icons. The new iDrive menu is accessible from the home screen with customizable tiles and looks like someone else’s phone app drawer you just picked up. The previously used column style menu for vehicle settings was much better suited to iDrive button navigation via scrolling and rocking. This new scattershot strategy looks like it was designed to be navigated solely via touchscreen – and therefore staring at something other than the road for an extended period of time. More time to get used to the new structure could improve things, and heavy use of voice control to find settings could also help, but that’s a temporary fix. The previous structure made sense, and this one is deeply lacking.
Finally, and I know James will agree, the whole system is just slower! Apps and other items take noticeably longer to load on the screen. There is occasional lag when touching the screen, and it’s generally less responsive/not as smooth as iDrive 7 is. This could be a result of the software being brand new with some kinks still to be worked out, but this is not the direction we expect technology to go. The new iDrive 8 should be faster and easier to use than iDrive 7, but it’s far from being. — Road Test Editor Zac Palmer
James’ take
After about five minutes in the BMW i4, I felt like Charleton Heston at the end of “Planet of the Apes” staring at the Statue of Liberty. ‘You ruined it! Damn!”
Unlike Zac, I never really liked iDrive 7, but at least the thing worked well and was easy enough to figure out (well, once the Apple CarPlay connectivity was ironed out). It was largely just an evolution of what iDrive had been since about 2010, when BMW finally figured out how to make it bearable. That system happens to be in a car I own, so it’s not like I’m ignorant of BMW’s manners.
Anyway, I agree with Zac, BMW screwed up its infotainment system. It’s complicated, confusing and the most devastating for a brand new system, slow! Not only do I have to tap, tap, and tap through different menus, I also have to wait while the computer shows the following screen.
Like Zac, I had a big problem with the climate control, but he’s already addressed that. What I want to talk about is another basic function: the radio. Now, yes, I understand that many people only listen to their own music, streamed somehow from their phone or an app, probably via Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. That is beautiful. People still listen to the radio, and specifically for this rant, SiriusXM satellite radio. I’m one of them – I even use the SiriusXM app constantly at home.
Whether satellite or old-fashioned terrestrial radio, the interfaces in cars to control them have been dependent on user-selected presets (or favorites) since the 1930s. Otherwise, you’d just be spinning back and forth between stations. Still! Somehow BMW thinks this is exactly how someone wants to communicate with 470 channels of satellite radio.
Instead of going back to the presets/favorites screen by default, the damn thing always dumps you back to the big list of 470 channels. You’re constantly going back and forth between this default screen and the favorites list, and then, once you’ve selected something…
You know what? Have a look at this:
@autoblog RANT: BMW has made its new iDrive technology interface worse, especially the radio interface #carsoftiktok #tech #BMW #rant #bmwi4 #cars ♬ original sound – Autoblog
The Volkswagen ID.4/GTI tech interface/nightmare has an equally nonsensical and horrible radio setup. I suspect it was designed by someone who can’t understand that people still listen to the radio (even if the radio in question is really just a streaming service with songs selected by people rather than an algorithm) and that their newfangled way completely was better. It’s not. Even if that’s the case, why don’t you just say, “Okay, Elder Millenial” and give old people like me the old thing they were used to? Why reinvent the wheel when you’re convinced the world has switched to hoverboards?
I also don’t want to dive into a touchscreen to turn on my heated seat. Especially if that damn screen takes forever to load. Just like the ID.4 by the way.
You blew it up. Damn. – Senior Editor James Riswick
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