If you simply take a look at the 30 second video below, you might think there’s really nothing to it but things aren’t exactly black and white in this life at all times. It just so happens that at certain points, things might be grey with more or less black in it and that’s what the new 1 Series is.
The cheapest car BMW sells at the moment just received a well-deserved facelift that simply takes it up another notch. It’s not just the visual front that was changed but the Germans also opted to introduce a lot of new tech on the hatchback, tech that might come as standard or as an optional feature.
Sure, some would say that prices are way too high for what they offer while others will say different but to each his own and everyone has his/her own perception on what expensive and what’s not.
Amongst these new bits and pieces you’ll find LED Adaptive Lights, automated parking, the new iDrive touch-sensitive controller and the one bit that’s the focus of the clip below: Predictive Gear Shift Technology.
What this does is exactly what the name says. It uses data from the Navigation system that tells the car’s ECU when a hill is coming up and how steep it is or whether there’s a ravine in the way or when a corner is approaching and how many degrees it has.
All of this info is then analyzed and sent to the gearbox that prepares the optimum gear for particular situations. This way, the car is as efficient as possible reducing both fuel consumption but also CO2 emissions.
It’s not something new but it’s unexpected because BMW had it on a select few models until recently, including the Rolls-Royce models. They had it first but not to reduce the aforementioned parameters that don’t really matter for a Rolls owner but to improve comfort.
Seeing it introduced on the cheapest model of the range means that the Bavarians are rolling such new tech on all future models. It also means that the 7 Series will come out with more upgrades than we expected, including the rumored augmented reality.
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