Joyride in the BMW i8 Mirrorless! - CES 2016
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2016-05-06
·
1,396 words · ~6 min read
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and we're back at BMW again this time it's going to be a little bit different
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so last time we got to see the inside of a tent and we got to see a car from the
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outside this time we're seeing the outside of a tent and we are going to be
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playing around in the I8 mirrorless from
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the inside actually taking her for a drive so this would be my first time
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ever driving well anything this high
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performance so I am actually pretty stoked right now let's get going
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so the test drive started out with a few surprises number one is that the I8 was
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really really comfortable for me sometimes it's nice to be small wow this
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is a car that I actually feel like right at home in at my size look at that
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number two is I was actually surprised as many of our viewers know I'm really
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not that much of a car guy so I was surprised when we started the car and I
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realized that it has a three-cylinder supplementary gasoline motor which
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contributed along with some simul sounds
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to the car not being as quiet as I had initially
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expected though switching to Pure electric mode later was a very different
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and very silent experience that is really quiet and number three the
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mirrorless rear view display I guess is
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what I'm going to call it was a lot better than I expected and the camera's
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hooked up to it really really impressed goodness you can see the entirety of
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behind you that is way better which doesn't mean
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that I got the hang of it right off the bat in fact the first thing I did when I
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went to back out of the parking stall was to wrench my back around put my hand
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on the back of the passenger seat and try to stare out the back of the vehicle
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no no no that's not what to do you are
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actually just supposed to stare at the mirror and monitor the live video feed
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from the cameras that are directly out the back of the car and and the ones
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that are positioned where normally the rearview mirrors would be on the left
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and right side of the vehicle so from
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there it was pretty much Off to the Races I mean it's not to say that it
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went completely smoothly especially at the beginning of the test drive I was
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constantly trying to check my mirrors on the left and right side of the car but
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what's interesting about even that is that my behavior started to shift very
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very quickly something that I don't think would have happened if this system
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wasn't so cool so let's talk a little bit about the cameras they're positioned
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on the right and left side mirrors facing backwards or where the mirrors
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would be see I can't even help but call those positions the mirrors and then
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there are two additional ones that are on the body of the car pointed towards
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the back those are the depth ones so let's talk a little bit more about those
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cameras there are four 1.3 megapixel
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cameras and let me tell you this is not the 1.3 megapixel camera that's in that
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cheap Chromebook that you were looking at as kind of a disposable computer not
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all pixels are created equally and I have to say these ones looked really
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really good now I did only get to try the car in broad daylight but BMW is
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saying that with the extra time that they have between building a concept car
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and actually bringing this product to Market they have a lot more work to do
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and they're confident that they will be delivering nighttime vision capabilities
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out of these cameras without relying on infrared light that exceed the
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capabilities of an unassisted human and
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the other thing that I thought was really cool about them is the way that
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the whole thing is stitched together so when you're just driving down the road
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and the most important thing is hey what's behind my car all of a sudden
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with one glance you've got not just what's outside the rear window but what
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is outside the rear almost
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180° of the vehicle it's great for being
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able to get a quick and efficient glance
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at what is important to me as the driver
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and this is neat too the information actually changes depending on the
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context of what I'm doing as a driver so for example hitting the turn signal to
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turn is going to go ahead and widen up the stitching on that side so that I can
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get a better idea if there's say for example a pedestrian to the side of my
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car that might have snuck up on me or a cyclist coming up beside me in in a bike
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lane but that's not all they can do so the four rear viiew cameras can actually
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work with the other four cameras and sensors that enable BMW's like bird's
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eye outof Body Experience thing that we saw the other day with the I3 where that
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car was able to park itself look at lines on the road to find well the
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parking spots to park itself and this is cool if someone bumps it send you an
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alert that gives you this live view of what the car looks like from the outside
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so you can check for then and then they take that mode and they
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put it to even better use so this is an issue that I have with sportier cars and
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really cars in general it's often very
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very difficult to shoulder check and see into the blind spot that is created by a
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traditional mirror setup this takes it one step further not only can you see
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completely behind you to the left when you're trying to change lanes on the
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highway for example you can see the entire rear of the car at a Glen
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in a way that is genuinely useful and what do I mean by genuinely
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useful ah yes very good question if this
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system had an unacceptable degree of
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latency I would be crapping all over it
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because that is totally unacceptable at the speeds that you might be moving
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never mind on the Autobon but even on a regular Highway here in North America
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and I have to say BMW has done a pretty
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bang up job of of not only just having a low latency camera and display but also
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doing all of the processing that they're doing pretty much in real time check out
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this demo okay so uh this will be an
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interesting test of the latency of the system you guys will be able to see my
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mouth moving we're not going to mess with this at all and I'm wearing a
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lavalier microphone on me that'll give you guys an exact idea of how much delay
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there is between something happening and what's on the screen
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so I guess all that's left to say at this point is what a freaking cool
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practical application of Technology on
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this concept car and I wish I could say this concept car and point behind me
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but that's just the regular I8 it's the one with actual mirrors which for now is
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fine because at the moment at least in the US driving around in a car with no
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mirrors is not actually street legal but that doesn't change the fact that I got
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to drive one it doesn't change the fact that it's really cool and way way better
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than I expected to be and it doesn't change the fact that that technology is
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most assuredly coming so a huge thanks
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to BMW for hosting us here for allowing me to take their I8 mirrorless concept
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out for a drive and a huge thanks to you guys for checking out this and all our
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other content here at CES 2016