Test drive review: BMW i4-40

[voxel]

@voxel Any thoughts / experience comparing Tesla voice control on MCU1 vs MCU2 vs MCU3?

Never drove an MCU1 car.

And only owned a MCU2 Y for 2-3 months (before I panic sold thinking BBB would pass and devalue it... lol) and Turo-ed a 3 for a week before that.

Siri/CarPlay is a slower MCU2 with broken natural language understanding IMO. CarPlay understands what I am saying but lacks context and the results are often weird. And it's not like I have a super old iPhone either (12). Tesla voice commands for navigation and music are basically 99% accurate and immediate.

Everything MCU3 seems instantaneous. At first I said I didn't notice any difference between the Atom/MCU2 but over time the lack of lag (UI and voice) is surprising.

I still own a Mach-E (yeah.. too many EVs) and that UI is slooow. Every action takes 2 seconds to process. Screens take up to 4-5 seconds to fully display. I'm fine with it because the screen is large and very readable. The BMW i4 UI is peppy... it just lacks Teslas superior voice integration. A recently iOS update has caused the GPS position to diverge making CarPlay navigation broken half the time. Both my Mach-E and i4 are experiencing this. Apple/Google Maps are basically unusable due to positioning being wrong.

 

[_Redshift_]

Never drove an MCU1 car.

And only owned a MCU2 Y for 2-3 months (before I panic sold thinking BBB would pass and devalue it... lol) and Turo-ed a 3 for a week before that.

Siri/CarPlay is a slower MCU2 with broken natural language understanding IMO. CarPlay understands what I am saying but lacks context and the results are often weird. And it's not like I have a super old iPhone either (12). Tesla voice commands for navigation and music are basically 99% accurate and immediate.

Everything MCU3 seems instantaneous. At first I said I didn't notice any difference between the Atom/MCU2 but over time the lack of lag (UI and voice) is surprising.

I still own a Mach-E (yeah.. too many EVs) and that UI is slooow. Every action takes 2 seconds to process. Screens take up to 4-5 seconds to fully display. I'm fine with it because the screen is large and very readable. The BMW i4 UI is peppy... it just lacks Teslas superior voice integration. A recently iOS update has caused the GPS position to diverge making CarPlay navigation broken half the time. Both my Mach-E and i4 are experiencing this. Apple/Google Maps are basically unusable due to positioning being wrong.

I have MCU1 on my S. Voice control works, but sluggishly. It’s accuracy is still very good, as it is on my 3.

 

[pipestem]

Honestly I don’t see VC getting better than in 2018 and it’s not as good as my Siri. But it is fast as noted and entirely good enough.

There’s a lot of that ‘cheap’ interior critique but my 2022 is much better in materials and details than my 2018 and the single screen has nothing to do with cheap or not. The i4 is a prettier interior with some nice touches but I think it’s less functional, the shifter is traditional but doesn’t really do much and there several distracting buttons down there, and the screen felt overly busy. Obviously it’s a matter of taste, but I don’t think quality. The i4 is more expensive so it should be prettier inside.