News about the upcoming F10/F11 from my house bible; auto, motor und sport:

Design:
Four variants of the new 5-series design will be presented to the Executive Board during 2008 in order to decide the final design, and the pictures presented in 1/2008 shows the design that, according to the journalists at the German magazine, has the highest number of votes for the moment:
- Front will take elements from the CS study
- The Eyebrows introduced with the E60 will be bigger
- Rear will be a mix of the E92 and the new X5, plainly said. The rear light will have the design of two hockey sticks on top of each other.
- Furthermore, ams writes that the HUD will come as standard (!). Hoppla.
* It look stylish, a bit conservative but is definitely a 5-series BMW.

The size will not differ much from the current E60-series (4.86 vs 4.84), so it will be a slightly smaller car than the next MB E-class and Audi A6, where both will increase in size a lot. Standard nowadays is a longer wheelbase, and that's goes for the F10 as well; 2.93 vs 2.89. Also, the ceiling will be 4 mms higher.

Interior
- A bit more coupe-ish makes the car ook like a modern variant of the E39, actually (!)
- The dashboard style returns to be driver oriented, iDrive is still with us both much improved, the iDrive screen 8.5" and more integrated with the dashboard compared to the E60.

Technical stuff
- xDrive will have the same improvements that now is at display on the X6, and will make the car more dynamic.
- Steering is fully electronic, to enable faster reactions.
- FlexRay will also enable more advanced versions of Lane Dep Assistance, Night Vision etc etc

Engines & Transmission
- Basically same petrol engines as before, but now with twin-turbo; as the 4.4 V8 engine will have twin turbo and some 406 PS. Probably a four cyl version will also show up, carrying twin turbos.
- Diesel engines will be further revived with more twin-turbo versions, probably partly for keeping size down as their will not be a V8 diesel.
- 6 speed gearbox std on six cyl versions, 8 speed auto box as optional, and as std on the 8 cyl version.

Timeplan?
Book Geneva 2010 already now for the F10 and the Geneva 2011 for the Touring! M5 in September 2012...

But the really important question: will it have a dipstick? :)

I can hear and see it already - "PING ... iDrive Warning ... steering module failure".

I wonder what types of advancements FlexRay will allow for the lane deviation warning and night vision systems?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flexray

Appears to just be a new type of optical interface (replacing MOST). So I assume it means faster data transfer and better syncronisation between systems.

hahaha ... this is so true

I know its a ways off but I wonder if they will also put more focus on fuel economy with the recent Bush "35 MPG average by 2020" Bill signed yesterday??? :|

Right, I'm familar with what FlexRay is, my question is more about what a faster interface can do to improve lane deviation and/or night vision...

I've never used it (just read the manual), but doesn't the night vision image freeze every now and then? And it's considered 'normal'?

Sure, the image will freeze slightly (I think it's constantly recalibrating) and maybe the FlexRay bus will allow for faster recalibration but from the information posted from auto, motor und sport, it seems to imply something more advanced than simply refresing faster, etc.