GlaD1 Posted October 2, 2023 Posted October 2, 2023 “BMW i5 is part car, part ecosystem. Even so, it’s rewarding to drive and the cabin is world class” Do you really need to ask? This is the eighth generation of the BMW 5 Series, the car its creators believe to be the world’s most beloved business saloon. Humility isn’t a noted Bavarian virtue but with 10 million sold siance the first iteration arrived in 1972, we’ll cut them some slack. Ahead even of the original 3 Series, the 5 Series is the car for which the greatest advertising tag line in automotive history – ‘the ultimate driving machine’ – was most applicable. Nope. BMW knocked that on the head years ago, in favour of the rather joyless ‘efficient dynamics’. But even that seems old hat in 2023. At times during a rather self-conscious presentation, you’d have thought we were there for a new smartphone or games console reveal rather than a car. The headlines here include the arrival of the i5, the first fully electric 5 Series, fitted with BMW’s fifth generation e-Drive technology, and touting all the radar, sensors and cameras that constitute a car these days. This includes the Driving Assistant Professional and Active Lane Change Assistant, wherein the vehicle suggests a lane change and you confirm by glancing in the exterior door mirror. This is either phenomenally cool or the end of days, but certainly a new dimension for the ultimate driving machine (as with Robocop, we like to think there’s still a heart beating in there somewhere). In tandem with this, says BMW, the central area of the cockpit display is reserved for an augmented reality rendering of the vehicle and its surroundings. Indeed. Or distracting enough. Also startlingly high in the presentation mix is the arrival of AirConsole, which introduces in-car gaming to the 5 Series. Connection is established by scanning a QR code on the Curved Display, which transforms the players’ smartphones into games controllers. BMW offers 20 in-built games at launch, with more to come. It’s another way of passing the time while you wait for your i5 to charge, as BMW cheerfully admits, but of minority interest if the last computer game you played was Manic Miner on the ZX Spectrum circa 1984. https://www.topgear.com/car-reviews/bmw/i5
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