[Sharbotcom]

Originally Posted by ezmaass

While I don't know the answer, in general I'd like to say that I find the Office features of iDrive pretty useless. I really don't have any interest in viewing or working with e-mail via iDrive. I'd rather take my phone out of my pocket and view it/respond. Am I missing something? I've seen some of the slick demos where you can verbally dictate a message and send it... but my phone will do the same thing hands-free... and it still seems less than useful except for the shortest and simplest of messages? Am I missing a big benefit?

The trend in most jurisdictions is to enact distracted driving laws that prevent most of us from looking at our phones and responding to an email with it. BMW has gotten onto the “integrated hands-free messaging” bandwagon and attempted to provide its drivers with a safer alternative to reading text messages and emails than through the phone directly. Hence the ability to have your emails/texts read out loud to you and a cut-off to the ability to scroll through the text while the vehicle is in motion. They have not addressed the dictation/composition side directly other than through third-party measures (Siri, etc.). You are right in that it is not a very good interface and it could be argued that it does not really help with the “distracted driving” issues. Ideally, (distracted driving issues aside) I would like to see the ability to respond to both texts and emails via voice. The challenge of course is in the interface relating to the vetting and editing of those responses without causing further distractions. Also, I think for a successful implementation the screen (iDrive) needs to be moved closer to the driver’s line of view (i.e. HUD) otherwise the driver will be faced with the constant diversion from his line of view and away from the road while composing responses.

So, in conclusion, the office integration is not very usable in its current state. BUT (bringing distracted driving issues back on side) when the text/email reading does work it is safer than using the phone directly.