BMW's iDrive has taken it on the nose from critics and customers alike. But give the luxury brand credit for recognizing that the goo-gaws and gizmos car makers keep adding to their vehicles are making the driver interface impossibly confusing. Designers can barely find enough space within reach of the driver to stash all the new buttons and control knobs that make high-priced cars sell.
Trouble is, BMW is using its streamlined iDrive to add even more driver distraction. iDrive will soon incorporate full onboard Internet access, allowing drivers to copy maps and other information directly to their navigation systems. It will work through an EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for GSM
Evolution) mobile connection, currently the fastest universal mobile connection available.
How do you use it? Read after the jump.
Drivers will surf the Web with a small joystick mouse. Maps and driving directions can be transferred to the navigation system with the press of a button. For safety reasons, drivers can only surf when the car is traveling at speeds of less than 3 mph. So you can read sports scores while oozing through a strip-mall parking lot. The sight of a slow-moving BMW should have you veering out of harm's way.
If your BMW has a rear DVD system, back-seat passengers can access the Internet when the vehicle is traveling at any speed.
As car interiors come to resemble airliner cockpits from the 1960s, it's curious that today you truly need more than one driver to operate the vehicle.
