JeffNNJ

What do you think?? Is it just a cool toy or is it helpful?? Worth the money?? Would you order it again??

JSpira

I spent significant seat time with NV and didn't get it in the 2008 5er.

It is probably more useful when you don't drive 90% of the time in urban or suburban areas but it's usefulness is limited because you can't possibly look at the CID all the time when you should be looking straight ahead.

I suspect the next generation of NV will be via HUD so it will become infinitely more useful.

Rudy

You had to ask, eh?

Okay, since you asked, I'll say that I think I'm probably the only one that thinks NV is quite useful.

First, I need to go off on a little rant...

I do understand why there's a general perception that Night Vision is not useful but I think, as with many things that are new, some "adjustments" need to be made and the best way to make these adjustments is to have long-term experience with these new things and practice techniques that allow you to adapt to the new device (in other words, people need to train their brain over time to use it properly.)

Many people have found this to be true with things on the E60 that are either new or different than what they're used to. The best example is iDrive. People who don't use it very much think it sucks. Most of us here have learned to use it very well and I'm willing to bet that the majority of our membership "gets" iDrive now and has adapted quite well to it. I'm even willing to bet that most of us not only have adapted well but we prefer iDrive over the more traditional slew of buttons scattered all over the dash. Another example is something as simple as the turn signal stalk. Does everyone remember how "foreign" the turn signals felt the first few times you used them because the stalk returned to center instead of the old-fashioned, mechanical stalks worked? Anyone know how many threads were started on this board where people complained about the fact that they couldn't figure out how to cancel the turn signals? Remember how many of those same people "got it" once they were shown the technique of canceling in the same direction as the signal is blinking? Once you get used to it, other cars start to feel inferior. (I still can't believe how far away from your hand the turn signal stalk moves on an M-B S550 when in a left-turn position. Even at rest, the stalk isn't reachable by your fingers if you use a 9 and 3 hand position on the steering wheel...) What about the LCI gear selector? Most people complain about it but I'll bet after some extended "adjustment time," it becomes a non-issue. Okay, one more example -- SMG. I don't think I need to explain that SMG is something that you learn to love once you've had some time to retrain yourself and break some habits that you've learned in the past. You simply can't accurately (or fairly) judge some of these new technologies by a short test drive or by using them for a relatively short period of time.

Lets face it, we've all been driving for some time and we've gotten accustomed to things being a certain way. The fact that BMW was bold enough to break the mold and buck the "thats the way we've always done things" trend caused many to be critical of things before they adjusted to the "new way" of doing things. Soon, as more and more manufacturers begin to adopt some of these now cutting-edge designs, the criticism will fade as they become "normal" and the "old way" will be considered inferior once and for all.

Okay, now that my rant is over (sorry folks!), here's my take on Night Vision...

Recently, I feel I crossed over from one who thought it was a "cool gadget" to one who "gets it" -- as I said earlier, I now find it very useful and use it very often. (If you look back at my 2008 LCI SAT review posted on these boards, you'll see that at that time, I wasn't sure about it's usefulness but I did have somewhat of a high expectation about it after getting some advice and opinions from my salesperson.)

The key to the whole thing is to use the screen like you do a rear-view or side-view mirror. Think about how you look in the rear-view mirror -- you glance up at it and immediately your brain registers what you see. You don't have to look around, you don't have to look for any extended duration, you just glance at the mirror and process the information that it provides. Maybe you glance at it a few times in succession to gain as much information as possible and maybe you get it all with one glance -- it doesn't matter, you just naturally do it and it doesn't distract you from what's outside the windshield and out in front of you.

It took me quite some time to practice glancing at the NV display since at the beginning, your brain takes much longer to process or "understand" what your eyes are looking at because it's such a foreign thing to see. At first, you tend to look at any "hot spot" because you're trying to see what everything is. This means you spend way too much time looking at the display and not enough time looking out the windshield. Because of this, people have a misconception that you have to keep looking at the screen while you drive instead of looking straight ahead, etc. Obviously, that would be bad but the good news is that's not what you need to do!

After much practice, you learn to ignore hot spots that are not important to you. You'd be surprised how many things show up as "hot" on that little screen. Once you start to see what animals and people look like, you begin to understand that people's post lamps, street lights, recently parked cars, power transformers, catch basins, manholes, etc. are things that can be ignored instantly by your brain. After you understand that clearly, your brain will begin to ignore those things automatically and the screen ends up looking quite "uncluttered" with just a quick glance of the eye.

As you teach yourself to ignore hot spots that aren't a threat, you also have to learn to train your eye as to where on the screen you need to concentrate your focus. For example, if I'm looking out the windshield and I see that I'm approaching a gradual uphill, I know that the NV display will allow me to look much further up the hill than the headlights are currently illuminating. I also have a mental picture in my head of what the road looks like so when I glance momentarily at the NV screen, my eyes immediately look only at the uphill area and the area immediately on either side of it. I don't even bother to look at the whole screen, just the part that I need to know about at that second. It's all about pre-processing what you're about to see so that you can see it instantly -- just like you do with the rear and side view mirrors, you just don't realize your doing it because you've been doing it for so long! Also, you learn as you look out the windshield to understand when you should look at the screen and when shouldn't bother to waste your time. For example, if you're approaching the crest of a hill, since the camera is mounted so low to the ground, it doesn't see over hills as early as you do. (The opposite is true when approaching a hill -- the camera sees up the hill higher than your eye.) The same thing applies to sharp curves, etc. You just naturally begin to learn when a quick glance will be beneficial and when a quick glance won't help you out at all.

As far as the argument that I live in the city and don't need it very much, I disagree with that too. I use it on urban (and very often suburban) roads and you'd be surprised at how many pedestrians you can pick up way before the naked eye can see them. Where I live, in a suburban residential neighborhood, there are tons of people who walk their dogs at night. I find myself not even using my high beams as much now because I can see everything I need to see by just alternating my view from the windshield to the CID screen and processing what's ahead quite accurately. To be honest, I find that NV is more useful in the residential areas than on the highway. On the highway, since things tend to be more wide open and speeds are much greater, NV doesn't always give you enough of a wide shot or enough advance warning to detect animals, etc. Sure, once in a while you'll see a car parked on the shoulder or someone changing a flat tire but usually, those people have some lights illuminated to help them stay visible. On rural roads, I imagine it can be useful but to be honest, I've had the least practice on those so for now, I can only say that it's probably something that I'd find useful.

If all of that wasn't enough, then let me simply say that on at least two or three occasions, NV saved me from having to stop suddenly because of an unexpected situation. In one case, I saw deer in the middle of the road while looking at the CID then I looked out the window and still didn't see them. Obviously, I slowed down gradually and the guy behind me did too. I can't say if, without NV, I would have hit the deer or the guy behind me would have hit me but I can say the situation was much, much safer because I had it. One other time, a similar thing happened with a dog-walking pedestrian. I was traveling a bit fast and as soon as I glanced at the screen, I saw, in the distance, an image of this person and dog and immediately slowed down. The dog walker never even broke stride but if I had not been given the advanced warning, I would have had to slow down dramatically and the pedestrian would have probably had to run to get out of the way (and would have been pissed off at me to boot... )

The only real drawbacks to the system are the fact that you sometimes have to flip back and forth to use the CID for other things. (NV in the HUD will surely be a welcome addition.) To do this effectively, I programmed a steering wheel button to toggle the display but now, since I have the lane deviation warning system, I don't have any more steering wheel buttons available. (I really wish they'd have put the lane deviation system button on the dash -- either where the NV switch is or in iDrive -- since I leave it active all the time.) The other drawback is that it doesn't work very well in the rain or when there's a lot of moisture in the air. I haven't had the opportunity to use it in fog but I'm betting it won't work as well as I'd like -- I guess I'll have to just rely on fog lights for fog, right everyone?

Whew! Okay guys, I'm coming up for air...aren't you glad you asked Jeff?

JSpira

I lost you on this

It sounds like you HAD a button and then added LDW and lost it. But that isn?t the case.

Rudy

Right, I had one programmable button but I permanently assigned it to the NV display. Now, I don't have any more left since BMW only gave me one to begin with. I basically think hard coding a steering wheel button to the LDWS is a waste of a perfectly good steering wheel button!

MidnightRider

Wow Rudy...that was a great explanation from a user's perspective. I can really relate to the intuitive nature that this device moulds itself into. Although I did not get this option, my area is infested with deer and I seriously contemplated it. The NV is a great safety option and I look forward to the time when the price is more reasonable or it becomes standard equipment. I appreciate the time you spent to relay your experiences.

JSpira

It sounded as if you couldn?t assign it to NV - but now that?s been cleared up.
I agree re the LDW button - makes no sense to me either.

JeffNNJ

Thanks Rudy!!

calpalmer

Megaditto thanks, Rudy. I'm glad I ordered the option on mine. You've helped me to keep an open mind about a lot of the new technologies BMW is employing, even Active Steering!
Cal

Rudy

Just in case my points weren't illustrated enough by my novel above, take a look at the videos of the system in action from the website of the company that manufactures the night vision system for BMW. (Even they explain that the system is designed to be glanced at like a mirror or an instrument.)

http://www.cvs.flir.com/dve/videos.cfm

(The first video, PathFindIR, is worth watching. The second video of a moose crossing the road is not bad, and the third video probably isn't worth watching...)