This was announced back in January, and at the end of March we finally received a silver BMW-525i for testing with a standard navigation system and Russian maps.
WHAT CAN IT?
The BMW navigation system is only part of the car’s multimedia system, controlled by i-Drive. One rotating controller that can be moved back and forth and left and right, as well as pressed, knows all the functions. The circuit theoretically allows you to control all the electronics with a single “button”. But at the same time you have to carefully look at the display - and although it is located at the top of the front panel, it distracts no worse than a mobile phone! Better to stop.
What are the advantages of the embedded system? Firstly, there is nothing superfluous on the panel - additional devices worsen visibility and reduce passive safety. Secondly, the screen in BMW is more and better quality than in compact navigators. Thirdly, the system is equipped with a built-in gyroscope, which allows not to lose the route even in tunnels and under overpasses, where the reception of signals from GPS satellites is impossible.
What are the disadvantages, it’s also clear: when buying a car this is an additional 3800 euros for so far only Moscow navigation. Official prices for DVDs with cards - 600 euros. Well, how can you not bring the price of "counterfeit"? 3000 rubles …
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
To begin with - naturally, to the editor: Seliverstov Lane, 10. On the first attempt to find the address did not work. Error in the database? Nothing of the kind - just by default the system searches in the same area where the previous address was found. If you include “all of Moscow” in the search area, then the desired lane is easy to find. That's just the numbering of houses in it ends on the sixth, and the tenth is not in sight. But our building is almost two decades old! However, the sixth will come down - it is still unknown where it will be possible to park …
This is the first surprise: while we are driving along Khimki, where the BMW office is now located, all the navigator has to offer is to show the direction, since there are no maps of the suburbs (even though it is only a few hundred meters from the ring road).
At the nearest interchange with the Moscow Ring Road, the system took up the mind and advised the correct entry for a U-turn, after which it proposed an sensible route through the Leningradskoye Shosse. Having pushed into traffic jams, we get out onto the Garden Ring, steadily and rectilinearly approaching the goal. A phone call changes plans: they are waiting for us on Komsomolsky Prospekt. Address? Yes, there is no address … Opposite the Youth Palace, but on the other hand. We use the "input from the card." It turns out not bad if you imagine the geography of the capital. The navigator did not disappoint!
The second route to the editorial office was made using not the “fastest”, but the “shortest” algorithm (in total, the navigation system offers six options). It turned out to be more interesting than expected: through Lenivka and Kolymazhny Lane, then along the Boulevard Ring.
The day passed on interesting trips, but we could not open new routes for us. Searching for addresses is not an easy thing, but BMW's navigation system specifically avoided complexity. After choosing a street you need to choose a house - the system itself will tell you what numbers are left. But do not flatter yourself - if the building is deep in the block, you will not find it …
POI
This abbreviation is in almost any navigator - Points Of Interests (literally "interesting places"). Typically, these include city attractions, hotels, restaurants, banks, and vacation spots. In the BMW navigation system, this feature is disabled by default. Turning it on is not so easy - the desired menu item is hidden quite deeply. But then on the map you can display restaurants, and hotels, and service stations, and even representative offices, to search for those nearby. The results surprised us incredibly - we did not expect such an abundance of evil places in the sleeping area. However, it turned out to be a computer “glitch”: the institution we liked was 17 kilometers from us!
Bad luck came out with the addresses of missions. Upon a BMW request, the system easily issued a route that we were not slow to take. But the closer to the final point, the more we were perplexed, finding ourselves in the end at the previous address of the representative office, where it left a year ago. It’s funny.
MOSCOW SCIENCE EXAM
Moscow is far from the largest city in the world in area, but in terms of the number of inhabitants it is second only to the five largest Asian megacities and the capital of Argentina. Complex and uneven development, an explosive mixture of industrial and residential areas, like pizza sliced by railway lines. Officially, this is called a radial ring structure.
For our estimates, we stocked up a dozen very tricky addresses. Before the test, not only the entrance possibilities were checked beforehand, but also the very existence of points - the construction in Moscow is quite active and the usual ways are changing. The main problem of “complex” addresses is that the houses indicated on one street actually require access from another. However, we took just a couple of them - it's too complicated. The rest are just from not too well-known corners of the capital.
Do you know Kutuzov street? No, not Kutuzovsky Prospekt, but the street - there are two of them in the capital, by the way … But what about the address: Moskovsky Prospekt, 18? This is not in St. Petersburg, but in Moscow! And that besides Brateev, there is also Brattsevo, have you heard? Believe me, even seasoned taxi drivers are sometimes surprised … Some of the results of our wanderings are in the photo.
POST AND OIL
For a long time, car navigation systems were banned here. In Japan, they have been using them for 20 years, in Europe - more than ten. It is not surprising that during foreign trips impressions from them are more optimistic.
The tasks proposed by the navigator were not easy: he completely coped with only three out of ten. The rest are partially completed: the right street with a "similar" address was found. Only hope for local passers-by.
The route to Europe is no harder to build. We checked - the system will bring to Munich. However, in Moscow there is much to rejoice - the complex interchanges on the Moscow Ring Road and the Third Ring system worked flawlessly. Especially good with the included three-dimensional "perspective" display on the screen - it is almost impossible to get confused. The screen itself pleased me - the image is clearly visible even in direct sunlight. Navigation is also good for one-way lanes in the center. At least, under the "brick" has never failed.
Voice prompts are also performed with dignity. A pleasant female voice without a “metallic” shade, the system automatically mutes the music before the announcement. Although the text itself sometimes surprises him: "get ready to take the left side of the roadway." Simply say: keep left. Arrival time is calculated persistently from the permitted 60 km / h. This is completely unrealistic - the speed is three times, or even four times lower! Is it really impossible to proceed from the average? It can do even the simplest GPS receiver for $ 150!
The one who does nothing is not mistaken. A long forced post without navigation systems in Russia has ended. Ahead is Shrovetide? Let the first damn BMW a little damp, a start has been made. Porsche and Mercedes navigators are approaching, and the most serious competitors are embedded navigation systems of alternative manufacturers. So "skim the cream" will not be long, you have to work on quality and prices. New cards are about to appear, they promise to fix errors in the program. Life will force consumers to benefit.
COMPLEX TEST ADDRESSES IN MOSCOW
1. Seliverstov Lane, 10.
2. Street Kutuzova, 9.
3. Paper travel, 14.
4. 1st Pugachevskaya street, 17.
5. Bolshaya Cherkizovskaya, d.22, bldg. 7.
6. Novatorov street, 20.
7. Moscow Avenue, 18.
8. Borisovskaya street, 40.
9. Shenogin Street, 4.