LET YOUR FINGERS DO THE DRIVING IN WHAT MIGHT JUST BE THE MOST HIGH-TECH CAR IN THE WORLD
We could argue about which brand builds the Best Car in the World until this time next week. It’s such an intangible thing and, besides, there’s one marque that kind of owns that epithet. It’s how they Roll.
But the parent company of that particular marque might just be building the Most High-Tech Car in the World, in the form of the sixth-generation BMW 7 Series.
BMW launched the new Seven amid the glitz and glamour of Manhattan’s Theatre (sorry, Theater) District this week. But the real story lies beneath the leather and LED mood lighting, in the car’s computer bytes and hidden bits of carbon fibre.
As always, the 7 Series is a technology leader for BMW. But this one is set on being a technology leader for the automotive world as a whole.
But first things first: the new Seven ticks the important boxes for top-line luxury cars. There’s a range of semi-autonomous driving technology available, including a new Driving Assistance Package Plus II that offers adaptive cruise control with stop/go, a traffic jam function that offers steering assistance and even side collision avoidance — so when a car wanders across into your lane on the motorway, your 7 Series can autonomously move away to avoid the crash.
There’s a high-tech parking assistance system as well, which can get you into and out of a space by handling all steering, acceleration and braking functions. But the new 7 Series can do even more than that. One of the Seven’s world-first production-car features is Remote Control Parking, which enables the car to park itself with absolutely nobody on board — providing the driver is standing nearby with one finger on the key-fob button. The idea is that you can squeeze this supersized car into a very tight space — even one so narrow that you can’t open the doors.
I wish I could tell you I’d seen Remote Control Parking at work. BMW had an entire racetrack for the launch, at Monticello Motor Club in upstate New York. But it was hardly mentioned as it’s not yet legal in the United States. It will, however, be available on New Zealand cars when they arrive early next year. Remote Parking requires the new Display Key, which is a cross between a conventional fob and a smartphone. It has a touch-screen that you can click and swipe to access vehicle information, such as lights and door locking. You keep it powered up in a wireless charging pouch inside the centre console. The charger works with your Qi-compatible phone as well.
As always, the 7 Series is a technology leader for BMW. But this one is set on being a technology leader for the automotive world as a whole.
The other world-first feature was one we did get to play with: Gesture Control. There’s a three-dimensional camera in the roof that reads an area right in front of the iDrive screen, which allows you to operate certain cabin functions with simple gestures. Twirl your finger and you can increase (clockwise) or decrease (anti-clockwise) audio volume. Swipe your hand one way to accept an incoming phone call and the other to reject.
You can also assign a function of your own choice to a two-finger poking-type motion. Well, not completely your own choice. You select from a list provided by the iDrive menu — a direct route home on the satellite navigation, for example.
It all works brilliantly once you get the hang of where to put your hand (an elbow on the armrest seemed to ensure the right location) and remember to keep the motions simple.
The other big development with the new Seven is the addition of touch-screen technology. This is something BMW has resisted to date, preferring to filter everything
Let your fingers do the driving in BMW 7 Series
through its iDrive system. The iDrive controller is still present and works in exactly the same way but, if you prefer, you can also operate the system on the touch-screen, including pinch-and-swipe functions. They’ve really gone to town on touch-tech, actually — you can also adjust the climate control settings on the centre console without using the physical buttons.
More choice like this means more of a luxury-car character, says BMW. The 7 Series has always been the sportiest of the premium-brand flagship sedans but there’s definitely more of a focus on tactile materials and passenger comfort with this one.
The metallic switchgear in the centre console has shades of Mercedes-Benz S-Class about it and there’s a new drive mode called Adaptive that uses data from the sat-nav system to predict the driving conditions ahead, ensuring the smoothest possible work from the powertrain and chassis. Air suspension and Dynamic Damper Control are standard on all models.
Is the 7 Series still sporty? Yes, partly due to those adjustable powertrain/chassis systems and partly due to dramatically decreased weight thanks to what BMW calls Carbon Core construction.
Odd as it might sound, we took this luxury limousine to the track at Monticello to understand the difference between Comfort and Sport modes. In the latter, the car is immediately more responsive and the chassis more taut. It happens, quite literally, at the click of a button.
In 750i 4.4-litre twin-turbo V8 form, as tested, the 7 Series is ferociously fast: 0-100km/h in under 4.5 seconds. Nimble, too, with the option of xDrive four-wheel drive, which can now be combined with Integral Active four-wheel steering — a first for BMW.
Specification for New Zealand models is yet to be decided. The 750i is a prime candidate and there will also surely be six-cylinder options, including petrol and turbo-diesel. With xDrive now available in right-hand drive Sevens and in combination with Integral Active Steering, it seems logical that it will feature on at least one variant of this flagship model.
Pricing is also unknown but the current 730d turbo diesel is $195,700, while the 750i is $237,700.
BMW has focused on tactile materials and passenger comfort.
No decision has been made on the 740e plug-in hybrid model for New Zealand. It won’t be launched globally until later next year.
All that remains is to discuss what the 7 Series looks like naked. Carbon Core is a new construction method that helps save 130kg compared with the previous model. Carbon Fibre Reinforced Plastic (CFRP) — the same material that forms the base for the i3 and i8 plug-in models — is used on select parts of the Seven’s body-in-white as reinforcement. There are 13 individual pieces of CFRP, and the extra strength has allowed BMW to make the steel and aluminium in those areas thinner and therefore lighter, hence the weight saving.
Carbon Core will be used to similar effect on future BMW models from the 3 series upwards, including sports utility vehicles such as the X3 and X5.
Remote Control Parking enables the car to park itself with absolutely nobody on board — providing the driver is standing nearby with one finger on the key-fob button.