News
Reviews
Buyer's Guide
Videos
What's My Car Worth?
Events
Ask MOTORTRENDBeta
New smarter cruise controls, lane keep assist, and self-parking features aim to win drivers over.
See All 3 Photos
Driver assist technology often works great in the lab and in safety tests, but too often it makes drivers crazy, causing them to switch it off, rendering the development and purchase cost wasted. With its brainier forthcoming Neue Klasse models, BMW is reimagining many of these features to make them appealing enough to, you know, use.
0:00 / 0:00
Capacitive sensors in the steering wheel know for certain when you’re holding the wheel, so you’ll never have to jiggle the wheel on a straight highway to confirm you’re there. And a sharper infrared driver-monitoring camera inside the rearview mirror determines precisely what the driver is looking at, because not all “distractions” are bad. The computer allows considerably more “eyes off the road” time when those eyes are looking at the mirrors—perhaps monitoring emergency vehicles, lane-splitting motorcycles, etc. We’re also promised way fewer (if any) unwarranted drowsy detection warnings.
Some unsignaled lane departures are legit, too, so when a driver checks a blind spot and then changes lanes, the steering wheel won’t fight the maneuver, and no warning will sound (sometimes there’s nobody there to see a turn signal). And when the hands-free driving mode suggests an automatic lane change, the driver need not press a button to OK it—a simple glance at the relevant mirror is sufficient (or it can be canceled via switch).
See All 3 Photos
Some situations call for slowing down temporarily while cruise control is engaged. For example, if a lane is ending or your exit is approaching, you may wish to gently slow and merge into a gap in traffic. BMW allows this without the need to press buttons to slow or resume. Light braking doesn’t cancel the system, but a tap of the pedal, harder braking, or touching the cruise main on/off switch will. Touching the on/off button again resumes the previous set speed unless the key has been switched off, in which case it sets a new cruising speed. (Plus/minus keys still allow tailoring the set speed.) And in heavy traffic, while creeping at very low speeds or when stopped, drivers are allowed to rest their eyes—but the system won’t accelerate or pull off from a stop until they open.
Most good drivers can self-park in less time than it takes to engage auto parking, so that’s a feature that goes largely unused. But at low speeds, BMW’s camera array scans constantly for potential parallel or straight-in parking spaces. Ready to park? Simply touch the “OK” button on the steering wheel spoke, glance at the screen indicating the space it’s aiming for, then thumb that “OK” button again. The car zips into the space at accomplished-driver speeds. When the driver returns, the car offers to unpark, with the same screen showing its intended direction—which can be easily revised via the screen—and drives off when “OK” is pressed. Perhaps the ultimate party trick is the car’s ability to reverse back through the last 650 feet of forward maneuvering automatically—potentially handy when encountering an unexpected dead end at the top of a circuitous driveway.
These features are among 40 ADAS systems enabled by one of four distinct “brains” composing the BMW Neue Klasse’s new zonal architecture. This one functions 20 times quicker than today’s ADAS chips and requires water cooling. The Neue Klasse line of cars launches in the second quarter of 2026 with the 2026 BMW iX3 electric SUV and will eventually comprise 40 new electric, gas, and hybrid models, BMW says.
See All 3 Photos
I started critiquing cars at age 5 by bumming rides home from church in other parishioners’ new cars. At 16 I started running parts for an Oldsmobile dealership and got hooked on the car biz. Engineering seemed the best way to make a living in it, so with two mechanical engineering degrees I joined Chrysler to work on the Neon, LH cars, and 2nd-gen minivans. Then a friend mentioned an opening for a technical editor at another car magazine, and I did the car-biz equivalent of running off to join the circus. I loved that job too until the phone rang again with what turned out to be an even better opportunity with Motor Trend. It’s nearly impossible to imagine an even better job, but I still answer the phone…
Read More
Join Newsletter
Subscribe to our newsletters to get the latest in car news and have editor curated stories sent directly to your inbox.
Explore Offerings
A Part of Hearst Digital Media
©2025 Hearst Autos, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Report Issue
Cookie Choices
Follow us
Load More

source