BMW Spyder Crawls all over the Consumer Electronics Show
Posted on Tue 19th Jan 2016 at 10:58
The BMW i8 Spyder has just been unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where it’s fired up imaginations with its innovative technology. It’s so stuffed with technology, in fact, that it’s not even remotely out of place amongst all the other gadgetry at the show.
The car is very similar to the concept originally revealed at the Beijing Motor Show in 2012, although this version includes a huge new 21” screen and a raft of cloud-based services. One striking feature is BMW’s gesture control, which allows both driver and passenger to select features using only a gesture. Gestures are picked up by three sets of sensors along the dashboard, and the intended selection is then confirmed by a soft button on the left of the steering wheel if you’re a driver, or an illuminated point to the right of the passenger’s seat. Menus can also be scrolled through on the touch-sensitive centre arm rest. Unsurprisingly, another key feature is the autonomous mode, which allows the driver to sit back and relax in his or her lounge-style seat.
he steering wheel is illuminated, and turns blue when the driver can relax, or red when they need to take control. Cloud connectivity is an important facet of the car, with the BMW Connected feature acting like a personal assistant and conveniently reminding you about appointments, routes and even the optimum speed at which to take bends. As Dr Klaus Froehlich, Board Member for Research and Development at BMW, said “real-time data from the cloud opens up almost endless possibilities.” Unfortunately, however, some of the services are still limited by the current telecommunications infrastructure, so we may not see them in real life for quite some time. This unveiling at the Consumer Electronics Show is not the official launch of the i8 Spyder, but rather a calculated reveal of just how far BMW have come. The launch is expected soon, and we’ll bring you more details as soon as they’re released.
