BMW has unveiled the all-new 7 Series, a flagship sedan rigged with technology not yet seen in major production vehicles.
DETROIT, MI - BMW has unveiled the all-new 7 Series, a flagship sedan rigged with technology not yet seen in major production vehicles.
The 7 Series is the first production vehicle on the planet to use gesture controls.
With gesture controls, hand movements are detected by a 3D sensor to control infotainment functions such as audio volume or accepting or declining phone calls. The system also allows you to program specific gestures to control certain functions. You can also opt to simply use the touch-screen and buttons.
In what BMW says is another first for series-produced cars, the 7 Series will have remote-control, autonomous parking. You can stand outside the car and, with no one at the wheel, push a button on BMW's Display Key and watch the car back into a garage or parking space.
And finally: lasers. The BMW 7 Series has comes with laser headlights that generate "a particularly bright, pure white light" and a high beam that reaches 600 meters (almost 2,000 feet), more than double what LED lamps are capable of, BMW says.
The 2016 7 Series variants include a rear-wheel-drive 740i with a V-6 engine, and an all-wheel-drive 750i xDrive powered with a V-8, both of which will hit U.S. dealers in the fall. A plug-in hybrid, the 740e xDrive, will arrive later.
The 740i's 3.0-liter engine gets 320 horsepower and 330 pound-feet of torque, sending the car from 0-60 mph in 5.4 seconds. The 750i's 4.4L, twin-turbo V-8 gets 445 hp and 480 lb-ft. of torque. The 750i goes 0-60 in 4.3 seconds.
The cars' performance is aided by BMW's use of lightweight materials such as carbon fiber and high-strength aluminum.
The 740i starts at $82,250 and the 750i starts at $98,350. Pricing has not yet been announced for the 740e XDrive.
David Muller is the automotive and business reporter for MLive Media Group in Detroit. Email him at dmuller@mlive.com or follow him on Twitter