[bike99]

Originally Posted by BMWrules7

This design is called "stateless."

Makes a lot of sense. It's simply a computer on wheels, so any "old fashion" devices don't suit it .

[raleedy]

Some of the "stateless" switches — the radio on-off switch is an example — save their state. Others (the rain-sensing wiper, for one, or the fog lights, for another) don't, and revert to "off". And some save just for a little while, like the seat heaters. One wonders who decides these things, and how.

[BMWrules7]

You make a great point and this decision is what separates the men from the boys or dare I say Mercedes from BMW.

For example, Mercedes is more trusting in their engineering. When you drive an s550 and water hits the windscreen the wipers just go on automatically.

Not so with the BMW. The BMW requires the user to first turn on the wipers. Same goes for night vision with pedestrian detection. BMW makes you hit the switch to turn on pedestrian detection and it can't be on when you are browsing music in the idrive. Now, if BMW trusted its computers the pedestrian detection would always be on regardless of what is displayed on the idrive. Since the warning is displayed as an alert you do not need the night vision screen to be on. Not to mention the fact that you are more likely to hit a pedestrian when you are fiddling with the radio or with idrive. So, it makes no sense to disable pedestrian detection during these events, does it? Again, BMW fails to trust its systems.

As a final example, the automatic high beams require that you initiate it each time even though the light switch is already set to auto. One more time, BMW does not trust its advanced systems.

In the future, BMW will probably install profiles where you can enable a whole set of features on startup. This would include seat heater, auto high beams and perhaps night vision.

Right now you really need a checklist In order to get the most out if your BMW. If your car is fully optioned then you have to spend five minutes turning everything on before you depart. It is getting a bit ridiculous.

Anyway, my theory is that BMW gates all of these options rather than make them all come on automatically due to major design flaws in their electrical systems that cause short haul drivers to have chronic battery discharge problems. Just my opinion!

Originally Posted by raleedy

Some of the "stateless" switches — the radio on-off switch is an example — save their state. Others (the rain-sensing wiper, for one, or the fog lights, for another) don't, and revert to "off". And some save just for a little while, like the seat heaters. One wonders who decides these things, and how.