Products · Product
BMW infotainment
Raised as a usability problem by 44 people on Hacker News over 11 years (2016–2026), in 32 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
Every issue, all time, most people first
Touchscreen unusable while driving because hands can't find buttonsUnreviewed
20162026- Navigating touch screens or voice assistants while driving takes attention away from the road2026-08-25
- Climate controls moved to touchscreen and no iDrive puck, forcing eyes off road2025-02-12
- Touch-screen car controls lag or fail, and the AC can't be reliably adjusted2024-12-28
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 47 complaints
- Changing audio source requires navigating several touchscreen menus, taking a minute while parked2026-08-25
- Navigating touch screens or voice assistants while driving takes attention away from the road2026-08-25
- Dismiss button disabled for seconds, forcing the driver to watch the banner2026-08-01
- A/C on/off buried in touchscreen menu, forcing distracting searches each time2026-05-04
- Too many presses needed for climate; startup progress bar distracts while driving2026-05-03
- Radio turns on automatically every time the car starts, requiring repeated switching off2026-03-18
- CarPlay fights with the car's OS, making the experience incoherent2026-02-11
- Single capacitive button bar is annoying to use compared to separate buttons2026-01-07
- Distracting visual overlays on the road view, enabled by default, hard to ignore while driving2025-06-22
- Climate controls moved to touchscreen and no iDrive puck, forcing eyes off road2025-02-12
- Touch-screen car controls lag or fail, and the AC can't be reliably adjusted2024-12-28
- Knob stop-at-end feedback was so novel it distracted from using the menu2024-11-06
- Removing physical buttons forces climate, seat and radio controls onto the touchscreen2024-10-27
- Infotainment software is laggy, sometimes unresponsive, and bloated2024-04-24
- Touchscreen controls require looking at the screen, unlike physical buttons that can be found by feel2024-03-05
- Touchscreen froze, leaving no way to reach the defog function as windshield fogged2023-05-20
- Knob only activates if both metal rings are touched at once, which must be learned2023-04-27
- Dial is unpredictable and hard to use for CarPlay, forcing more screen glances2023-04-27
- Climate and seat controls moved to touchscreen, requiring looking and mis-presses2023-03-22
- Newer models move climate controls onto the touch screen, requiring screen use while driving2023-03-22
- Touchscreen is unsafe to use over bumpy roads; voice control wording is hard to learn2023-01-08
- Newer iDrive version is a usability downgrade from the previous one2023-01-07
- Touchscreen is useless while driving and shows distracting information2022-08-17
- Simple tasks require taking eyes off the road to use touchscreens2022-08-17
- Car's UX and marketing-heavy tech is making the commenter crazy2021-12-24
- Must look down at touchscreen to change temperature and airflow2021-11-29
- Touchscreen controls require looking at the screen, so drivers can't operate them by feel2021-11-29
- Touch screens are hard to use over bumpy roads2021-11-28
- Menu buttons are cryptic and unclear, and physical controls like volume are being removed2021-11-28
- Touchscreen is useless while driving because hand can't find buttons2021-11-28
- Steering wheel buttons can't be reprogrammed, forcing drivers to reach for the screen2021-11-28
- Touchscreen placed where driver can't see it without taking eyes off road2021-11-28
- Must take eyes off the road to use defroster controls on touchscreen2021-11-28
- Rental car makes audio setup require menu diving and manual Bluetooth switching every time2021-11-28
- Touchscreen controls take too long to find and adjust while driving2021-11-28
- Touchscreen requires leaning toward the screen, impractical while driving2021-11-06
- Infotainment is slow, overwhelming and tedious to use2020-12-25
- Hard to operate touchscreen while driving to adjust AC2020-03-31
- Main menu reorders itself by recent use, so items move unpredictably2020-03-21
- Driver profiles and paired phones keep breaking, requiring unpairing and re-pairing repeatedly2020-01-20
- Car repeatedly picks the wrong driver profile, forcing several menu levels to fix2020-01-20
- Hard to use while driving; mis-clicks and can't find pages easily2019-10-01
- Car switches to the wrong iPhone and stops music when multiple phones are connected2019-08-29
- No play/pause button; oil reset needs a secret method; many confusing controls2019-07-03
- Bluetooth pairing silently disabled in gear with no menu indication or explanation2019-05-20
- Mercedes multiple input gimmicks are hard to use; BMW wheels and touch pads frustrate2018-06-30
- In-car computer and user interface are junk and hard to use2016-04-20