[jmg]

Well... I drive 100 miles the other day to get to know the car more. While I'm still not a fan of the lack of physical buttons and the <100% redundancy with the physical controller, the voice control aka "Personal Assistant" actually works pretty well to do the things I want physical buttons for the most:

• Hey BMW, set temperature to 65
• Hey BMW, heat my seat
• Hey BMW, heat my wheel
• Hey BMW, increase fan speed

The HUD displays a visual curser type blob thing that "talks" to you, and your voice commands show up as texts as well, so you can at least tell that it's listening to you correctly. I'm guessing that if you don't have HUD (which IMHO is a MUST have feature), you can get it to show up on the iDrive screen?

I also discovered that if you say "Hey BMW, change ambient lighting to blue" it will change it for you. Not bad.

I guess this is the way of the future.

[BroDoze]

I gotta try out these voice controls.

That said I have no real complaints about my iDrive 8.5. Takes a bit to learn to navigate it and customize it, but once it’s set up, it’s freakin great.

[T-Rexx]

Originally Posted by Orange fever

Squeeze to fit my love handles on the seat ..

Hahahahaha, best comment I have seen today!

[T-Rexx]

Originally Posted by JABCAT

There is no way to know what heat level setting your seat is on without accessing the climate settings via the screen - annoying.

That would be!
So there is no 3x led’s to see if, and what setting it’s on?… untill your ass starts to burn?

[T-Rexx]

Originally Posted by Carefree

My wife discovered the M1 paddle returning from the gym this morning.
Said she’s not interested in M2.

Hahaha, is M1 the fast one?

[T-Rexx]

Originally Posted by jmg

One thing I have noticed between iDrive 7.5 and 8.5 is that redundancy with the iDrive controller is not 100%. Previously, every action is accesible without touching the screen, even if there is a bit of scrolling involved. I much prefer this.

Here is a list of things that can only be controlled by touching the screen I have found so far:


Heated Steering Wheel
Heated Seats
Fan Speed
Temperature? (Honestly haven't tried this yet)



I hate this entire philosophy. Fine, get rid of the buttons, but please let us access everything without touching the screen.

100% agree!!!
I never ever touch the screen to avoid finger prints (ocd with my pride and joy cars to always look impeccable) .
I would in the past gladly spend the extra time to scroll through to that option via the dial.

This is going to give me massive OCD issues when my LCI arrives.

I can see it now, there will be times where I will be driving around with my ass burning but my body being frozen from the fan because I don’t want to touch the screen hahahahaha

It’s a sickness, and I need help hahahaha

[T-Rexx]

Originally Posted by jmg

The new wheel does not have the button sadly. Good tip on voice control. I might have to start actually using it.

“Hey BMW, my ass is cold”

Lol

[T-Rexx]

Originally Posted by Carefree

Well I haven’t tried that one yet.

The voice commands can be finicky until you find the “correct” wording/phrase for each function. It was frustrating at the onset. Once established, it works really well for windows, fan, temperature, seats, etc.

Good luck.

That might be a great topic for a new thread!
A database of phrases that we know works for a particular function. I really don’t want to touch my screen hahaha

[T-Rexx]

Originally Posted by Bimmer Frank

"Hey BMW, mein Arsch ist kalt" ?

Hahahaha, and the car replies “NEIN!!!”

[T-Rexx]

Originally Posted by JABCAT

They add all these "safety" features but then take away buttons for features such as heated seats, temp, fan speed, etc. To change these things requires the driver to take their eyes off the road for a pretty decent amount of time. I can adjust the temp, activate the heated/cooled seats in my wife's X3MC without taking my eyes off the road because I know where the buttons are by feel & you know you're pressing them.

Maybe they bring the climate control/heated seat buttons back. I know Jeep did away with them for a couple years in the Grand Cherokee (everything controlled in the screen) then brought the buttons back in '23. I guess enough people complained.

Here here!!! Excellent point!!!!

[T-Rexx]

Originally Posted by two_three_two

who the fuck is making these decisions at BMW?

Attachment 3640915

I like where your head is at mate hahahaha

[T-Rexx]

Originally Posted by BroDoze

I gotta try out these voice controls.

That said I have no real complaints about my iDrive 8.5. Takes a bit to learn to navigate it and customize it, but once it’s set up, it’s freakin great.

I am sure it’s awesome, I just don’t want to touch it and leave f$&/king smudge marks all over it 😂

[JABCAT]

Originally Posted by T-Rexx

That would be!
So there is no 3x led’s to see if, and what setting it’s on?… untill your ass starts to burn?

No, if activated it just displays a red seat. Nothing to indicate the level.

[T-Rexx]

Originally Posted by JABCAT

No, if activated it just displays a red seat. Nothing to indicate the level.

That’s stupid!
Typical “change for the sake of change” mentality here.
It doesn’t function better, easier, or more intuitively, but we will change it any way because,,,,, that’s what everyone else is doing!
Seriously if technology doesn’t improve something, why does the world still insist that technology must be used to change it?

[wjones14]

Originally Posted by JABCAT

No, if activated it just displays a red seat. Nothing to indicate the level.

Hmmm. I have the heated steering wheel option and iDrive 8.5, so it may not be apples to apples, but if you touch that seat icon, does it bring up a detailed view showing the intensity level?

On 8.5 at least, there are manual and automatic settings. Touching the seat icon brings up the manual override where you can adjust the seat (and wheel if optioned) to either OFF, Low, Med, or High.

In the Climate/Individual Settings, the Automatic setting is more granular (it seems), where there are settings for OFF, Low, Med/Low, Med, Med/High, and High.

The 2025 owner's manual contradicts what I see on iDrive as far as the heated wheel. The owner's manual shows the intensity being displayed on the wheel icon, but only the seat shows the intensity level in iDrive 8.5. So I think the only way to adjust the steering wheel heat intensity is to go to Climate->Individual Settings, and adjust the Automatic Setting.

Does iDrive 8.0 have the same Automatic settings?

[blue135]

Interestingly, 37 was the exact same alert temperature in my '83 533i. Assume somebody chose that to give plenty of warning.

[IanH]

Originally Posted by wjones14

Hmmm. I have the heated steering wheel option and iDrive 8.5, so it may not be apples to apples, but if you touch that seat icon, does it bring up a detailed view showing the intensity level?

On 8.5 at least, there are manual and automatic settings. Touching the seat icon brings up the manual override where you can adjust the seat (and wheel if optioned) to either OFF, Low, Med, or High.

In the Climate/Individual Settings, the Automatic setting is more granular (it seems), where there are settings for OFF, Low, Med/Low, Med, Med/High, and High.

The 2025 owner's manual contradicts what I see on iDrive as far as the heated wheel. The owner's manual shows the intensity being displayed on the wheel icon, but only the seat shows the intensity level in iDrive 8.5. So I think the only way to adjust the steering wheel heat intensity is to go to Climate->Individual Settings, and adjust the Automatic Setting.

Does iDrive 8.0 have the same Automatic settings?

The settings in your picture on the right determine at what temperature the seat/wheel auto activate, not what temperature they heat at.

The setting on the left, I believe, determines how aggressive the seat heat and air heat are compared to the set temperature of the car for the upper body specifically.

[wjones14]

Originally Posted by IanH

The settings in your picture on the right determine at what temperature the seat/wheel auto activate, not what temperature they heat at.

The setting on the left, I believe, determines how aggressive the seat heat and air heat are compared to the set temperature of the car for the upper body specifically.

To be honest, I'm not 100% sure how the automatic heated seat and wheel settings work. To clarify though, the circled part in the attached picture only pops up when you tap the seat/wheel icon below it. It stays on for a few seconds allowing you to adjust/view the current settings and then it goes away.

[JABCAT]

Originally Posted by wjones14

Hmmm. I have the heated steering wheel option and iDrive 8.5, so it may not be apples to apples, but if you touch that seat icon, does it bring up a detailed view showing the intensity level?

Yes, I have to touch the screen to see what setting the seats, fan, etc. are at vs a button that has 3 leds that you can quickly glance at and known what setting it's on. And no, we don't have the same auto settings for the heated seat, it's either low, medium, or high. If the auto climate program is activated, it will not let me manually turn on the heated seats at all. I have to turn off the auto program then I can turn on my heated seats. There is also no visual indicator anywhere letting you know the heated steering wheel is activated.

It also only activates my heated wheel if the car is remote started - but won't activate the heated seats. Conversely, this morning (28 degrees) it activated the heated seats but not steering wheel when I started the car with the start button.

The previous iDrive with the temp settings was infinitely better than the current configuration, imo.

[jmg]

Has anyone found a way to turn off the rear ventilation in ID8.5? In ID7 it was a simple "Rear Seat Control" menu item or something. No one sits back there 80% of the time, so I like to turn it off.

[wjones14]

Originally Posted by JABCAT

Yes, I have to touch the screen to see what setting the seats, fan, etc. are at vs a button that has 3 leds that you can quickly glance at and known what setting it's on.

It's funny to think about the things we complain about now. How hard is it to tap the seat icon to see the heating level?

I understand your point though, since it's something you used to be able to do and now you can't. Removing all the physical buttons and
knobs created a whole bunch of inconveniences.

The thing I miss most from my F87 M2 is the red and blue dial on the upper vents to quickly change between hot and cool. When the "genius" was going over the G87 with me during delivery, I mentioned that dial, and he said "oh it's right here in Climate->Individual Settings->Temperature Adjustment upper body." So now it's two menu levels and clicking the temperature you want (while you're driving), compared to turning a dial to Red or Blue.

He just shrugged his shoulders and said that most people now just turn it to Hot in winter and Cold in summer and leave it there. But the whole point of that dial was to make a quick adjustment one way or the other. Sigh...

[IanH]

I say this as someone who doesn't use voice commands for ANYTHING on my phone or in other cars.

The bmw voice commands work awesome. They are fast and useful. I use "what is my oil temperature?" All the time. It also is equally good for changing the set temperature or heated elements.