MIRAMAS, France -- BMW's just-revealed 7 Series luxury sedan packs more than a dozen breathtaking new technologies. Use them all and it will be nearly impossible to get lost, spin out on a hairpin turn, run down a pedestrian at night, get ticketed for speeding in a work zone, rear-end another car on the highway, get rear-ended yourself in a panic stop, be T-boned pulling out of a narrow alley, or make a back seat passenger seasick on a twisty country road.

For all this you can credit the 100 or so microprocessors, onboard cameras, and radar/sonar transceivers on the 2009 7 Series. Based on a technology backgrounder BMW ran for editors and writers at its massive test track here in France's Provence region, my initial take is that BMW definitively raised the bar of excellence in premium cars while taming some of its frustrating current technologies-run-amok, namely iDrive.

Here's a hands-on first look at the car and the technology. Check back soon for more pictures!

Go to PCMag.com for a slideshow!

Huge improvement in iDrive
The original iDrive debuted in 2002 on the previous 7 Series. It replaced dozens of dashboard switches and knobs with a single cockpit controller and an LCD display. Users admired the cleaner dashboard look and hated the excessive complexity. This version is vastly better. The controller now gets four direct access keys for CD/Multimedia, Radio, Navigation, and Telephone, plus Menu, Back (like a PC Escape key), and Option. No longer do you slide the controller in one of eight compass directions to start an iDrive command. Instead, you see a list of choices you can access by turning the control wheel or tipping it like a gamepad button. Or, you can use voice input.

The climate control system was removed from iDrive entirely and may be BMW's clearest admission that iDrive 1.0 was just a bit too concerned with cleaning up the dash no matter what the human cost. Climate control is now a strip of buttons and knobs on the center stack with a black panel indicator directly above, black panel meaning the light or indicator underneath is completely invisible (black) when it's not lit. The instrument panel is the same.

But BMW hasn't fixed every iDrive mistake. The map zoom feature is still backwards: to zoom in from region to city to street view you turn the controller counter-clockwise. BMW says it's a fifty-fifty call as to which way is correct. That's a crock. The majority of users, when asked to close their eyes and visualize how they'd zoom a map using a knob, will mostly make a rotating motion in a clockwise direction. Sorry, BMW, you've still got this one backwards. And, alas, it's not user-customizable.

Biggest, brightest LCD display: 10.2 inches
The LCD display for iDrive is 10.2 inches (diagonal) with a resolution of 1280-by-480 pixels, equal to two VGA displays side by side. In BMW fashion, it's mounted at the top of the center stack, where it's easier to see. And the display is transflective, meaning it gets brighter in sunlight, not dimmer. You can read the display even through sunglasses. (At night, it's still internally lit.) BMW pioneered this on the 3 Series convertible and now realizes that the modest additional cost (an estimated $25 a panel) provides immense additional functionality for the user.

Navigation improvements
The navigation system takes advantage of the ultra-wide display and can be used as a two-thirds/one-third split screen with the navigation street view on the left and a region view on the right (or audio info, or the trip computer) or it can be an ultra-wide single view. BMW shifted from Navteq to TeleAtlas for map data and now includes a terrain view when zoomed out and a 3D buildings-and-landmarks view up close. You can create trips on your PC and carry them to the car via a USB key or send them via Google Maps if the car is equipped with BMW's telematics cellphone, called BMW Assist.

Turn directions are duplicated in the instrument panel (a simplified arrows map and name of next turn) or in the optional head-up display. The main display shows which lanes exit and which lanes go through, a feature becoming more common with nav systems.

Blind spot detection, lane departure warning
BMW joins the growing list of automakers offering both blind spot detection and lane departure warning. Blind spot detection (BMW also calls it lane change warning) uses side- and rear-facing radars to watch traffic coming up on either side, up to 200 feet (60 meters) in back, which is farther than some other systems. If there's a car coming up on your blind spot, an yellow triangle lights up on the outside mirror; if you've got your blinker on, meaning you're about to change lanes, you also get a subtle steering wheel vibration.
Lane departure warning continues and on BMWs it's also a subtle, slight vibration in the steering wheel if you drift across a marked lane unless your turn signal indicator is on. Some automakers use a warning beep, which is bad, because it tells passengers the driver screwed up again.

Sign recognition: No more speeding tickets?
The same camera used for lane departure warning can also read traffic signs for speed limit changes, which it compares to a speed limit database in the navigation system (for added confidence), and the pops up the current speed limit, where it changes, in the instrument panel or the head-up display. BMW says it's able to detect temporary speed limits in road construction areas, overhead electronic signs restricting speed when there's an accident, and lower speed limits when it's raining. (If the wipers are on, the car assumes it's raining.) It will only be offered for now in Europe, which has simpler and more uniform signage than Americans do in the 50 states. BMW says it will have to try to create algorithms to deal with our signs that may have multiple speeds on a single sign (cars 65, trucks 55, minimum 40).

This should also bring back a new version of the old joke where the driver tells the traffic cop he thought the Route 66 sign was the speed limit and the cop replies, "Well, it's a good thing I stopped you before Highway 110."

Pedestrian detection added to night vision
BMW's existing night vision system now detects pedestrians. The main night vision display is in the iDrive console in the center stack. New algorithms look for the shape of humans (a torso, head, arms and legs moving), recognizes the shapes as people, and if they're in the roadway (not on the sidewalk), puts a yellow rectangular box around the obstacle and flashes an indicator in the instrument panel or head up display. Created in partnership with Autoliv and Flir, this is a second-generation HUD system that Flir says can be manufactured for about half the cost of the first generation systems. Flir was speaking generally and BMW hasn't announced pricing yet; it's $2,200 on current BMWs. This is passive infrared technology, meaning it reads heat signatures emitted by people (also cars and still warm rocks). BMW says night vision works out to 300 meters (about 1,000 feet) and signals the pedestrian warning at 100 meters. Flir says its new system actually works out to 500 meters but BMW says it's all relative because at far distances, the image is so small in the display you wouldn't know if it's a pedestrian or stray white pixel. BMW says animal recognition comes next, to protect your car (and you) from Bambi, and vice versa.

Ajustable ride comfort
BMW offers driving dynamics switches on the center console that let you tailor the ride from pillow soft to race-ready. It uses still more microprocessors and the FlexRay bus architecture unveiled first on the BMW X5 that is the reigning PC Magazine / Technoride Digital Drive Car of the Year. FlexRay ties together the electronics controlling the suspension; it's fast enough to react to a bump hitting the front wheels and adjust the rear suspension accordingly. Tap the button on the console and you go from a limousine-like Comfort mode though Normal, Sport, Sport Plus and racetrack modes that give a progressively firmer ride and at the very top end remove some of the electronic safety aids that correct for dumb driving mistakes. (Don't try this at home. Two testers from car magazines managed to slide off the test track within minutes of switching into the ultimate track mode.) Combine that with the optional air suspension and adaptive roll stabilization (translation: the car reduces body roll in turns, much like a plane does in the air), and you've got a ride that's extremely soothing, at least in the comfort mode.

Flashing brake lights: no more rear-enders?
When you brake hard - really hard, as in a near-panic stop -- the brake lights don't just come on, they flash on and off. This should eliminate a lot of tailgating idiots running into you, if only BMW brought the feature to the U.S. Inconsistent state laws are the culprit.

To avoid you running into cars in front, BMW continues to offer its active cruise control with stop and go, meaning it's a cruise control with radar that locks onto the car in front and slows when it slows, all the way down to 0 mph, then back up to speed again. If you tap the brakes, disengage ACC, and come up too close, too quickly, to a car in front, a very noticeable beep alerts you to hit the brakes.

Side View camera for tight parking spaces
A camera mounted in each of the front wheel arches peeks ahead and to the side and shows you the view (on the iDrive display) as you pull into or out of tight parking spaces or side streets. Since the car is long and the cabin is set back, it's almost as good as having a lookout sitting on the front corner of the car.

Circle of safety
With all this technology, you have a 360-degree circle of safety that comprises: active cruise control and parking sonar facing forward, Side View (and steerable xenon headlamps) angled ahead and to the side, lane departure warning to the side, blind spot detection angled to the side rear, and parking sonar and a backup camera to the rear.

Audio/video: 80GB hard drive, two USB jacks
For entertainment, BMW matches the competition and moves ahead in a couple areas. The integrated hard disk is 80GB, currently the biggest in a car (most are 30GB-40GB) with a reported 13GB set aside for ripping MP3s (the partition size seems to be in flux). The rest of the disk is for navigation maps, phonebooks, and the Gracenote music database.

There are two USB jacks, one in the center console along with an audio-in jack, and one in the glovebox. The USB jack can play music from an memory key (MP3 or WMA). iPods work, but only via an adapter cable, which leaves BMW behind the leaders, most notably Ford Sync.

Rear entertainment is two screens mounted on the backs of the front headrests; each can have a separate program. The front display also plays DVDs, but only when the car is stopped. BMW says it looked at but didn't adopt the Sharp TwinView technology that allows driver and passenger to see separate images on the same display, not least of all because it halves the resolution (the driver sees pixels 1, 3, 5, etcetera, while the passenger sees pixels 2, 4, 6, etcetera).

BMW's fifth generation 7 Series
This is the fifth generation of BMW's 7 Series and represents either a refinement or stack backward - take your pick - from the radical 2002 design. The car appears longer and wider with fewer noticeable curves or bulges; even so, it won't be mistaken for anything but a BMW.

U.S. customers get one engine choice, a twin-turbocharged V8 engine with 414 hp and a six-speed automatic transmission. The rest of the world can order a six-cylinder turbo diesel (245 hp) or a six-cylinder twin-turbo gasoline engine (326 hp). BMW will be introducing diesels to the U.S. market this fall but initially on the 3 Series compact sport sedan and X5 SUV.

The 7 Series in the U.S. will be offered as a standard wheelbase 750i or the more popular long-wheelbase 750Li. They're currently priced starting at $77,000 and nicely equipped can push $100,000. Pricing will depend a lot on the euro-dollar exchange rate at the start of 2009. It's due to go on sale here around March 2009.

Summary: Should you think about buying?
Based on what I saw at this initial overview and test, the new 7 Series rises beyond what's currently available at the top of the automotive food chain from Audi, Cadillac, Infiniti, Jaguar, Lexus, or Mercedes-Benz. iDrive is vastly better and should be palatable to most users, unlike the current iteration. You'll probably pay $80,000 for the cheapest 7 Series and with all the cool options, you'll be over $100,000. Over time, the price of options should come down and they'll also find their way into cheaper BMWs. As a technology statement, the 7 Series appears to be in a class of its own.

2009 BMW 7 Series
BMW of North America, www.bmwusa.com
Price: Estimated $80,000 and up (March 2009)
Pros: improved iDrive. New or improved pedestrian detection, bind spot detection, forward-side view cameras. Great ride.
Cons: Some technologies won't be on U.S. cars. V8 only, no diesel or six-cylinder engines. iDrive zoom feature still backwards.
Bottom line: BMW fixed most of what's wrong with iDrive and completed the circle of safety features in its flagship 7 Series. You'll love the ride and handling and wish we had all the options here, not just most of them.