Equipment: New control concept, bespoke comfort, intelligent connectivity
A new control system makes it possible to tailor the high-performance sports cars’ set-up even more closely to personal preferences and the situation at hand.
BMW’s Comfort Access system, telephony with wireless charging, the BMW Display Key, Adaptive LED headlights and ambient lighting are all included as standard. There is also the option of BMW Laserlight with BMW Selective Beam, which generates a high-beam range of up to 600 metres. As well as boasting a BMW Head-Up Display with M-specific readouts, the new M8 Competition models also come with the Driving Assistant and Parking Assistant Plus as standard, while an array of further driver assistance systems are available as options.
The BMW Live Cockpit Professional – including a navigation system and the BMW Intelligent Personal Assistant – is also standard equipment and provides full access to the latest digital services from BMW Connected and BMW ConnectedDrive.
BMW Live Cockpit Professional
The BMW Live Cockpit Professional also brings the benefits of the new BMW Operating System 7.0 to the M8 Competition models. Its fully digital screen grouping comprises a high-resolution instrument cluster behind the steering wheel with a screen diagonal of 12.3 inches and a 10.25-inch Control Display. The driver has a choice of the Control Display’s touchscreen, the familiar iDrive Touch Controller, the controls on the steering wheel, voice control or BMW’s gesture control.
The BMW Intelligent Personal Assistant is another element of the operating system. The digital companion can be activated with the spoken prompt “Hey BMW” and helps the driver to use vehicle functions. What’s more, he constantly acquires new skills thanks to the updates transmitted by Remote Software Upgrade.
The standard Head-Up Display projects driving-related information onto the windscreen and directly into the driver’s field of view. It employs full-colour graphics and allows the driver to see a wealth of information without having to divert their eyes from the road.
The M Mode
The M Mode button on the centre console making its debut in the new BMW M8 Competition models can be used to alter both the responses of the driver assistance systems and the information shown in the instrument cluster and Head-Up Display. M Mode allows the driver to activate ROAD, SPORT and a TRACK setting.
Changing the mode alters the information presented to the driver on the screens, while the safety-enhancing interventions by the driver assistance systems – such as active braking or steering inputs – are reduced to a bare minimum or deactivated altogether.
In the default ROAD setting, all the standard and optional driver assistance systems are fully activated. A simple press of the M Mode button engages the SPORT setting, in which the active driver assistance systems (in the configuration set by the driver) now only transmit alerts on speed limits and overtaking restrictions, for example.
This mode allows all interventions in the braking and steering systems to be disabled, aside from those made by the Collision Warning with braking function and the Evasion Assistant.
In SPORT mode, the driver benefits from M View in both the instrument cluster and the Head-Up Display. Here, only relevant information for sporty driving – i.e. an M-specific engine speed dial, the shift lights, a digital speed display and the gear currently engaged – is displayed in the cockpit. The Head-Up Display readout is concentrated around the engine revs and shift lights, navigation instructions and distance warnings, the gear selected and the vehicle speed, plus the speed limits and overtaking restrictions detected by the Speed Limit Info system. Pressing the M Mode button again returns the driver to the default ROAD mode.
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