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X3 - Technology questions

5K views 26 replies 12 participants last post by  wavewuver 
#1 ·
We're about to close the deal on an X3 28i on Monday but I'd like some feedback on some of the technology.

Silly as it is, one of the reasons we're upgrading our ride (beyond having a fun car to drive) is that we want something more technically advanced.

Real-time traffic is important - can anyone share their feedback on how accurate and updated the information is? We were at the dealer Saturday night and we were unable to receive any traffic info. My expectation was that we would see color coded highways Green for clear, yellow for slow and so forth. We had all the buttons checked to receive traffic and we were in the gray screen mode but nada! Dealer is going to check it out and we're going back during rush hour to see it again.

iPhone 5 - Any feedback on how it performs with Mobile Office? Pairing multiple devices?

Any other general comments and feedback for someone looking for the ultimate driving and technology machine?

We have driven the Q5 and I think their technology is a bit better but not as fun.

Appreciate the insights.

Nick
 
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#2 ·
The realtime traffic info is ok in my opinion. I don't really have much to compare against besides the iPhone Maps. There's grey arrows on the highways where there's backup. I live in the San Fran bay area so this is fairly accurate. That's pretty good when I'm stuck in traffic, I have a good idea of where it ends.
There's also markers that you can click on and it'll say what's the issue. Sometimes it says accident other times it says slow traffic. Personally, I don't find that part too helpful. Honestly what I do I see the traffic, look on the iDrive and then switch to the news radio for what's happening.

I can't comment on the iPhone 5. I still have an iPhone 4 and I don't want to update the OS to iOS 6 yet.
 
#3 ·
Real Time traffic works well but mostly depends on your area. If whoever manages it in your area is good about updating the system then it will work well. If your area doesn't send out frequent updates it won't work well.

I have the iPhone 5 and everything works as it should. No complaints. Text messages show up on the nav screen, music will play through bluetooth and the USB cable and the phone charges if I plug it in. No weird adapters necessary.
 
#4 ·
Here in Seattle, the traffic info is pretty good, but beware the system is only as good as the data feeding it. It tends to only highlight major incidences and closures--not minor slowdowns.

The NAV system..., set your expectations really low. The main 3D view is actually pretty impressive showing a great deal of detail and relief information. The database for the NAV system is awful. About 30% of the addresses we've added in do not exist and it does not have a way to guess at that. It will just refuse such entries. Points of interest list is almost useless and very hard to navigate through. One way around this is to use the BMW remote app, use Google maps section to find your location, then have that send to iDrive. This method has worked out pretty well so far. Oh, yeah, it won't speak street names either.

HUD is nice. When the NAV system is working for you, the integration is sweet.
 
#5 ·
Thanks for all the responses. We decided to pull the trigger and took delivery of our X3 this evening. On the route home it showed some traffic conditions but both had actually cleared by the time we reached it. I guess we'll just need to accept that RTTI hasn't quite advanced yet but it is better than not knowing anything at all. It does look like the INRIX RTTI will be pretty sweet once it's fully rolled out to all models - we just couldn't wait until the 2014 model :)
 
#7 ·
From my experience, the realtime traffic is useful for three things.

1. When you actually get stuck in traffic, you can see how far it is backed up and decide if you want to change your route.

2. When there is construction, it will show the slow area with arrows.

3. Marveling at the fact that your vehicle displays traffic info.
 
#9 ·
The traffic on my Droid works better than most of the systems out there.
 
#10 ·
Question about RTTI: When I select the traffic info icon on the left vertical edge in Navigation, I see the traffic text that I can scroll through. This lists info out to 99 mi from what I could recall. However, when on the "map" I don't see any green colored roads where there is no traffic (or very few cars). Not sure if geography matters (I'm just North of Boston). Does anyone know why I'm not seeing that? Do I not have the full RTTI capability? I have all the traffic items checked in settings.

Also, a separate question: I don't see any satellite view (with option checked), even when I zoom out to > 1mi by any amount. I thought that was supposed to work also. Any clue?
 
#11 ·
However, when on the "map" I don't see any green colored roads where there is no traffic (or very few cars).
Are we supposed to see colored roads? From what I understand, it shows gray arrows next to the road in the direction of travel that is slow.

Also, a separate question: I don't see any satellite view (with option checked), even when I zoom out to > 1mi by any amount. I thought that was supposed to work also. Any clue?
I have to zoom out pretty far before satellite images are overlaid. I assume it's because they don't have really high detail images for the closer zoom levels so it's just limited to lower detailed zoom levels.
 
#16 ·
bmw navigation sucks :thumbdwn:

iphone, ipad or any of the portable navigations are all better.
I've had BMW Navigation before and I don't hate it. Sure there are things to be improved but for the most part it gets the basic job done (IMO) and I like the bigger display for other things. So I got it.
 
#20 ·
OK, I convinced myself that the satellite view is working when zoomed to >= 1mi. Maybe I need a new eyeglass prescription :).

I still don't see any green-colored roads that are clear of traffic. I have all options enabled/selected related to traffic. Can anyone confirm if that should be visible in the U.S. (in particular, the greater Boston North area)?
 
#25 ·
I was so dissappointed with the BMW Pro NAV that i stuck a Garmin 3590 up by the right side of the BMW display. So much better and easier to use, plus it displays digital speed and speed limit info. Sadly, it somewhat of a hack job and looks tacky but it works.
 
#26 ·
Sadly, it somewhat of a hack job and looks tacky but it works.
I wish it was standard that every car dash had a perfectly flat circle near the top of the dash so a GPS could be mounted perfectly without sticking it on the window or blocking any other dashboard vents, buttons, lights, etc. Some designer will get it at some point, even if there was a cap over it so it looked nice when not in use.
 
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