NEXT-GEN BMWS TO BOAST 4G HOTSPOTS AND VOICE TEXTING

By Stuff on July 11, 2012

BMW has revealed the in-cabin tech that’ll grace its next generation of motors – and some of it is truly impressive. Perhaps the best new option is in-car Wi-Fi courtesy of LTE 4G (this won’t be available in the UK, of course), which’ll let all your passengers browse the web at insane speeds while you power down the motorway.

Also on board is a new iDrive Touch controller. Existing Beemers use a combined dial and joystick to control the in-car electronics, but future models will feature a touch-sensitive pad; you’ll be able to trace letters and numbers to input addresses into the satnav system, as well as control the on-screen maps via swipes and pinch-to-zoom. Speaking of the nav system, it’ll store its maps on a 200GB hard drive, of which 40GB is reserved for digital music.

Your voice will come to the fore too. The system is Siri-like, so if you ask what the traffic’s like you’ll be given a live traffic report for your route; you can also dictate texts and emails.
Expect the new features to appear from next year.