The rest of the ergonomics of the cockpit are fine. The materials feel pleasant to the touch, with an interesting contrast between the textured fabric and padded plastic on the dash. It has plenty of physical buttons and a trapezoidal infotainment screen that places the controls near the driver’s right hand.
Take a closer look at the wheel we don’t like.
BMW
Take a closer look at the wheel we don’t like.
BMW
Take a closer look at the wheel we don’t like.
BMW
However, there is no longer a physical dial controller for the infotainment system, and Alexa has replaced the Serenity in supplying natural language processing and conversational AI. In practice, this feels like a bit of a downgrade, and not only does the AI assistant – that little ninja-looking face in the middle of the panoramic vision display – repeatedly think someone had used its trigger word when we didn’t, but many of my requests were met with some variation of “I can’t help you with that”.
drive impressions
The calibration of the one-pedal driving mode – which you toggle on or off with the drive selector on the center console – is very well judged, and the friction brakes shouldn’t take over unless you’re asking to slow down at more than half a g, meaning 98 percent of all deceleration events should return energy to the battery pack. It’s a quiet ride, as long as you keep it out of Sport mode, although the suspension is relatively firm and you’ll feel some imperfections in the road.
On the road, I found the Efficiency mode very useful, despite it being the most throttled back. When not in one-pedal (D vs. B on the drive selector), the iX3 steers well, and one of the onboard driver assists will read the speed limit signs and brake regeneratively for you to meet them if you’re coasting and fall short of the limit. (This is one of the supports you can disable if you prefer.)
It is quite agile in changing direction.
BMW
It is quite agile in changing direction.
BMW
Practicing emergency lane changes. The brakes are very effective.
BMW
Practicing emergency lane changes. The brakes are very effective.
BMW
Fun to drive, but don’t push too hard.
BMW
Fun to drive, but don’t push too hard.
BMW
Practicing emergency lane changes. The brakes are very effective.
BMW
Fun to drive, but don’t push too hard.
BMW
The suite of advanced driver assistance systems now runs on its own domain controller, one of four powerful computers that replace dozens and dozens of black box ECUs that are used to handle every single separate function. Improvements include a new remote parking capability that uses the My BMW app on a smartphone to do an even better James Bond impression tomorrow never diesAnd an adaptive cruise control that can tell the difference between a heavy application of the brakes – to the point where it deactivates – or a light brush, returning to speed after slowing down.
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