Gadgetory

well we've all learned that we look at flagship cars like a BMW 7-series to find out what's going to be in cars we can afford like five to ten years from now this example of the new seven is a pretty good technology showcase that we can look down the road at I'm Brian Cooley with my top five milestone tech features in the new Beamer flagship number five the carbon core now I put this at number five because it is not an entirely new technology carbon fiber in cars but pure carbon fiber passenger cells remain a tedious expensive process but BMWs done here is hybridized with carbon fiber reinforced plastic here and here and here blended with aluminum and lightweight high-strength steel the overall result is a loss of nearly 200 pounds now on a big boy like this that's not exactly earth-shaking but weight loss is the Holy Grail and this is an important way of getting there by the way this technology trickled down from the iSeries the i3 and the i8 or it emerged a couple years ago number four Laser headlights and I put these relatively low because this is not entirely new technology howdy got these out in a limited-production r8 a little while ago but this is full production in the seven series contrary to what you might think Laser headlights don't literally aim out on the road like lasers at a concert they go about an inch and they hit an illumination structure inside the lamp and then that light is projected out but you end up with a much more efficient and controllable light huge throw they say about a third of a mile for these guys that's way more than your current high beams while using about a third less power they're very tiny modules and they should last forever unless your rear end someone don't do that number three is gesture control now a BMW gives you a lot of ways to control the center stack you've got the traditional I drive knob controller which lately has had a touchpad on top of that voice command continues better than before you've got a touchscreen now I'm still getting used to that in a premium German car that was very no-no for the last number of years but now on the top of all that is just your command as well this is the biggest mainstream push to put gesture in real cars yet number two is the head-up display now you may say HUDs nothing new and it's not but this is the largest one in the business and that's important in a HUD because the bigger and more expansive it is the less you have to scrutinize a small piece of real estate which is not a great idea when you're driving you want a big one that is more or less in your gaze and this one's absolutely doing that on top of that BMW already in my opinion did the best infographics on a hood of anybody in the industry what I want to see them push the bar on next is be the first to get augmented reality in here number one in the words of auric Goldfinger is what an extraordinary car key you have Mr Bond this is the first LCD touchscreen remote key fob now you slide it up to get to your screens and you can see if the cars locked you can check your fuel range check your battery charge if you happen to have a plug-in hybrid or something but here's where it gets really interesting on the last screen it marries into a new level of self parking tech so you hit this button here and the car goes and identifies a nearby parking space it shows you yes I have found one then you to stand on this arrow and the car will start to nose in all by itself you aren't in the car notice that that's also a Deadman switch if I lift off the car stops moving for safety reasons otherwise I just stay on the arrow and the car takes itself all the way in and when it's done it tells me and all I have to do is turn it off and it locks and I walk away that's a crowd pleaser or top five lists to wake the car lover go to see net on cars comm but on top five