Ah well, it was too much to hope that BMW would bring out a software fix.

It looks to me like a simple polling issue. Even the dreaded microsoft hourglass would be better than repeatedly moving the controller........ not knowing if I've clicked it hard enough or not.

IMHO the iDrive concept would have greater acceptance if it simply responded in a timely manner

 

??? CD/DVD Drive made in China. So? Where do you think they are ALL made? Lenovo - once called IBM PC manufacturing division - was sold to a Chinese corporation...

Sorry- I'm clearly missing the point.

 

I think my530i was simply posting the main cause of the poor interface speed on Nav Pro cars, not making any statement about its origin or that being the reason for the poor performance. Most of us never get to see what's actually behind the dashboard

 

Well.. More and more is moving from the west to China - we've just got to live with it.
I even think Lenovo is held by the Chinese state?

A bit OT, but I'm going to miss the ThinkPads once they totally disappear. Glad my X41 bears the IBM logo.

 

...funny you should say that, because every time I use my Cup Holders in the dash, I think I'm in a Hyundai !!

 

Something I've never seen mentioned in the iDrive discussions so far: Isn't it likely that the slow iDrive wNav start up is probably due to the GPS system itself, not some computational or software thing?

The time it takes for a GPS device to find and lock onto available satellites is not instanteous, sometimes taking only a few seconds, sometimes longer.

The software bootup probably includes an 'initialize Nav', which only returns to continue startup after it has found sufficient satellites to figure out where it is. I assume there'd be some sort of time-out for situations where it couldn't find enough signals, as in a deep garage or something.

For newer cars, could it also be the "phoning home", for those with BMW Teleservice? Finding and registering onto cell network takes time.

 

i dont think idrive waits to find the satelltes before booting up.

when i first took delivery of my car in munich i remember turning the car on and playing with idrive for several minutes before driving off. during those minutes nav didn't show my position at all because i was told you need to drive for some distance before the satellites actually figures out your location.

my location showed up once i was halfway across the parking lot.

 

Hmmm... quite the opposite is true.

The quickest satellite lock is obtained when you're stationary. It can take "quite a long time" to figure out even the simplest route from scratch while you're moving. Even with locked satellites.

ABC

 

None of these reasons really explains why the Sat Nav costs 5 or six times as much as a Tom Tom system and is less able to work out optimum routes. It will simply not navigate accurately in Nottingham (England)! The I Drive is slow and annoying. It blights an otherwise reasonable motorcar that would be alot better for a few well considered buttons. I for one hate the way that you can't just press a button for a preset radio station and then repress it to retune when the signal has weakened. The onboard computer takes an age to retune and tuning to another station and then back to the one you wanted is also slow, because of the speed limitations of the I Drive, and should be unnecessary.

 

Integration is what you're paying for. Not saying the TomTom etc don't work well, but there is no way I'm sticking any aftermarket unit to the windshield or dash on a close to 70K car. Re your radio issue, if you are talking about presets (or evern manual tune) you can get what you want without any use of iDrive - just use the steering wheel buttons. Just select the next preset or next frequency with the up arrow then retune to the original station with one press of the down arrow. I'm not 100% sure that retuning to the same frequency would help much if the signal was already weak though!