[MidnightMarauder]

The Wall Street Journal isn't impressed (may be behind paywall):

https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/cars/2...hp_featst_pos4

[vallejojo]

Originally Posted by Flamesofgold

I think the range kinda sucks for the m60 tbh. But I still like the car itself

The M60 is not for you. That's like saying the gas mileage on a sports car is not good. Get the i5 M40 if you want more range.

[frittss]

Nicee!

[GHN1013]

Hi guys,

I’m new to BMW. Coming from years with Lexus and Audi. I’m in process of looking into an i4 or i5. A few of the more important features that plan of using a lot are the ACC + DAPP.

For the i5, I have a few questions:

* With Highway Assistant on, how sensitive is the eye/facial monitoring? And can you adjust/turn off the eye monitoring? I don’t want the system beeping at me every time I glance away for a few seconds.

* Can you use the ACC without having any eye/facial recognition?

* Can you deactivate the changing lanes by head glance?

* How is the overall experience with ACC on the i5? Smooth acceleration / braking? Good lane keeping assist? Etc.


Thanks so much in advance for the feedback.

[SkykingUSA]

Originally Posted by GHN1013

Hi guys,

I’m new to BMW. Coming from years with Lexus and Audi. I’m in process of looking into an i4 or i5. A few of the more important features that plan of using a lot are the ACC + DAPP.

For the i5, I have a few questions:

* With Highway Assistant on, how sensitive is the eye/facial monitoring? And can you adjust/turn off the eye monitoring? I don’t want the system beeping at me every time I glance away for a few seconds.

* Can you use the ACC without having any eye/facial recognition?

* Can you deactivate the changing lanes by head glance?

* How is the overall experience with ACC on the i5? Smooth acceleration / braking? Good lane keeping assist? Etc.


Thanks so much in advance for the feedback.

My answers based on my 11 months with my 2024 i5 eDrive40:

* With Highway Assistant on, how sensitive is the eye/facial monitoring? And can you adjust/turn off the eye monitoring? I don’t want the system beeping at me every time I glance away for a few seconds.

I'd call it medium sensitivity. I can look to the mirrors, or the side without it triggering. The only times it has triggered for me is when I put a bottle up to my mouth to drink. Sometimes the bottle blocks my eyes a little. As far as I know, there is no way to adjust or turn off the eye monitoring.

* Can you use the ACC without having any eye/facial recognition?

I think the eye recognition is always on, regardless of whether you use ACC or DAPP. One of its purposes is to recognize a disabled driver and stop the car, so whether you use ACC or not, doesn't matter.
A driver could still become disabled, without using ACC and/or DAPP.

* Can you deactivate the changing lanes by head glance?

According to the user manual on page 239, "Lane Guiding with Navigation" can be turned off. Keep in mind, that if you leave it on, it will only suggest lane changes if you have a destination set in the nav system, and you are on a major highway. Otherwise, it will only monitor your eyes for lane changes if you have a destination set and you initiate the lane change with your turn signal while ACC or DAPP is active. I find the feature to work very well and like using it. Even on the freeway, when it suggests a lane change, I simply don't look in my mirror and it will not change lanes. The prompt disappears after about 3 seconds if I ignore it. Take a look at the "Lane change with active guidance" section of the pdf manual starting on page 238 for more info on that.

* How is the overall experience with ACC on the i5? Smooth acceleration / braking? Good lane keeping assist? Etc.

I think it works pretty well, but not perfectly. It requires clear lines on the road, or an obvious curb to stay in the lane. When it has those, it stays comfortably in the center of the lane when there are lines on both sides, or beside the line if there is only a line on one side (like when an exit is coming up on a freeway and the right line disappears briefly). The radar is used for collision avoidance and maintaining distance and also works pretty well. You can adjust the distance between close, medium and far, depending on how closely you want to follow other cars. I leave mine on medium.

One thing that can be improved is the aggressiveness of the slowing down in some situations. When you're not far from other traffic, or when you're not going much faster than other traffic, it's great. It's when you are going 50 mph and there are cars stopped at a light way up ahead that I think it waits too long before braking. It will always still stop behind the car, but rather than slow gradually as you approach the red light, it will wait until the radar "sees" the stopped car at the light, then brake to a stop. Naturally, the radar is only "looking" so far ahead, and if you are going fast and the car ahead is stopped, it brakes late.
I wish the radar was looking further ahead in those situations.

Acceleration is quite smooth, as is the actual stop (there are no jerky stops). Another thing I wish it would do is stop at red lights and stop signs on it's own. Currently, it will notify you in the instrument cluster of red lights ahead and stop signs, but it does not react to them. In other words, you will have to brake on your own, unless there is a car in front of you that is stopped. I don't think the system is smart enough to detect which red lights and stop signs mean stop and which ones don't, so the car doesn't stop on its own when there are no cars in front of you. For example, when I'm driving through an intersection on a green light, but the left turn lane shows a red light, the car will drive though the green light, but still show me a red light in the dash. For those situations, I'm glad it doesn't stop on its own. Same thing with stop signs - sometimes there is a stop sign on the far right for a bike lane, but not for my driving lanes. The car drives through, but also shows me a stop sign in the dash.

Overall, I'm pleased with the system and how it works, and find it useful. I use it almost every time I drive, even when it's just 9 miles to the tennis courts, then back home. However, if you're thinking it's like Tesla FSD, it is not. I hope that helps!

[GHN1013]

Originally Posted by SkykingUSA

My answers based on my 11 months with my 2024 i5 eDrive40:

* With Highway Assistant on, how sensitive is the eye/facial monitoring? And can you adjust/turn off the eye monitoring? I don’t want the system beeping at me every time I glance away for a few seconds.

I'd call it medium sensitivity. I can look to the mirrors, or the side without it triggering. The only times it has triggered for me is when I put a bottle up to my mouth to drink. Sometimes the bottle blocks my eyes a little. As far as I know, there is no way to adjust or turn off the eye monitoring.


* Can you use the ACC without having any eye/facial recognition?

I think the eye recognition is always on, regardless of whether you use ACC or DAPP. One of its purposes is to recognize a disabled driver and stop the car, so whether you use ACC or not, doesn't matter.
A driver could still become disabled, without using ACC and/or DAPP.

* Can you deactivate the changing lanes by head glance?

According to the user manual on page 239, "Lane Guiding with Navigation" can be turned off. Keep in mind, that if you leave it on, it will only suggest lane changes if you have a destination set in the nav system, and you are on a major highway. Otherwise, it will only monitor your eyes for lane changes if you have a destination set and you initiate the lane change with your turn signal while ACC or DAPP is active. I find the feature to work very well and like using it. Even on the freeway, when it suggests a lane change, I simply don't look in my mirror and it will not change lanes. The prompt disappears after about 3 seconds if I ignore it. Take a look at the "Lane change with active guidance" section of the pdf manual starting on page 238 for more info on that.

Thanks so much SkyKing for your detailed thoroughness. Super helpful. A few clarification question:

1) With Eyes monitoring continuously on, does it give you false negatives alerts when wearing polarized sunglasses?

2) And did you mentioned if you can deactivate the Highway Assistant and just use the ACC?

3) Lastly, I forgot to ask, but does the Parking Assistance Plus have semi-autonomous parking where the car automatically steers into the parking spot, while you negotiate the gas/brake? I know I i4 has that feature, but it didn’t mention it in the i5. I think it has Remote Park with your phone instead?

[SkykingUSA]

Happy to help.

1. I don't think it does give false negatives with polarized sunglasses. I can't say for sure because I swapped my polarized glasses out for non-polarized ones. Reason: the HUD is difficult to see with polarized lenses, but I can read it perfectly with non-polarized ones. I didn't get any false readings though when I briefly wore polarized lenses, but I'm not sure I wore them long enough to say for sure.

2. I'm not sure what you mean by highway assistant. You can turn on the ACC and choose whether it only maintains distance, or also handles the steering for you. There is even a way to disable the ACC and just use old fashioned cruise control where it holds a set speed no matter what (no adaptive features).

3. When using parking assistant plus, you can ride the brake as it parks. You can even come to a full stop if you want to, and then let it continue by lifting off the brake a little. One thing to note: you only get the remote parking feature with the Parking Assistant Pro, not with just Plus. The Pro is ordered separately through the iDrive store after you get the vehicle as an add-on to the Plus if you want it. Basically, you order Parking Assistant Plus when the order the vehicle, but you can't order Pro until after you take delivery, and add it on to your Plus. The Pro option adds the ability to use remote parking, and also the ability for the car to park between just parking lot lines with no other cars around. Without the Pro version, you don't get remote parking and you can only park in a spot if there are other cars to the right or left of that spot. Kind of weird, but that's how it works. I use the parking features all the time - a few times to parallel park for me on the street, and almost every time I come home I let the car pull itself into the garage as I ride the brake so that it centers itself and pulls into the garage the correct amount as per the saved path I created. Neither of those need the Pro add-on, but I got that anyway and use it occasionally to remotely move the car forward and backward.

[GHN1013]

Originally Posted by SkykingUSA

Happy to help.

1. I don't think it does give false negatives with polarized sunglasses. I can't say for sure because I swapped my polarized glasses out for non-polarized ones. Reason: the HUD is difficult to see with polarized lenses, but I can read it perfectly with non-polarized ones. I didn't get any false readings though when I briefly wore polarized lenses, but I'm not sure I wore them long enough to say for sure.

I test drove the car after this post and did discover that polarized glasses are okay to use.

Originally Posted by SkykingUSA

2. I'm not sure what you mean by highway assistant. You can turn on the ACC and choose whether it only maintains distance, or also handles the steering for you. There is even a way to disable the ACC and just use old fashioned cruise control where it holds a set speed no matter what (no adaptive features).

Under the Drivers Assistance Professional Package for i5, there are two features. One of them is called Highway Assistant, which basically allows total hands-free driving and lane change with your eyes, under certain conditions (Highways only, must have ACC activated, and must have distraction sensor engaged where you are looking at the road).

Originally Posted by SkykingUSA

3. When using parking assistant plus, you can ride the brake as it parks. You can even come to a full stop if you want to, and then let it continue by lifting off the brake a little. One thing to note: you only get the remote parking feature with the Parking Assistant Pro, not with just Plus. The Pro is ordered separately through the iDrive store after you get the vehicle as an add-on to the Plus if you want it. Basically, you order Parking Assistant Plus when the order the vehicle, but you can't order Pro until after you take delivery, and add it on to your Plus. The Pro option adds the ability to use remote parking, and also the ability for the car to park between just parking lot lines with no other cars around. Without the Pro version, you don't get remote parking and you can only park in a spot if there are other cars to the right or left of that spot. Kind of weird, but that's how it works. I use the parking features all the time - a few times to parallel park for me on the street, and almost every time I come home I let the car pull itself into the garage as I ride the brake so that it centers itself and pulls into the garage the correct amount as per the saved path I created. Neither of those need the Pro add-on, but I got that anyway and use it occasionally to remotely move the car forward and backward.

Thanks so much for this detailed explanation.

[SkykingUSA]

Originally Posted by GHN1013

I test drove the car after this post and did discover that polarized glasses are okay to use.

Thanks for confirming!

Originally Posted by GHN1013

Under the Drivers Assistance Professional Package for i5, there are two features. One of them is called Highway Assistant, which basically allows total hands-free driving and lane change with your eyes, under certain conditions (Highways only, must have ACC activated, and must have distraction sensor engaged where you are looking at the road).

Ok, I think I know what you are talking about. I went to my car and snapped the following shots. They show the section in the menus that you get when you go to the Driving Settings menu (you can get there directly by pressing the button in the center console below the parking camera button). That menu shows that the features you're referring to can all be toggled on or off as desired.

The first picture shows that these features are in the Assisted Driving section of the Driving Settings menu, and the next three photos give a description of what each function does as shown in the car menu.

I hope this helps.

[Blue Sky]

Highway Assistant is always confusing.

Highway Assistant is really the Traffic Jam Assist (up to 40 mph) that is seperately software enabled to work at highway speeds up to 85 mph. I believe both of those terms show up in the ordering information but not necessarily in the owner’s manual or even in the car. I think they exist to seperate the capability for markets where you can purchase them seperately or because the local laws don’t allow use of assisted driving in both those situtations.

Assisted Driving Plus is the (Highway Assistant / Traffic Jam Assistant).