BMW discontinues rotary knob 24 years after its debut

BMW has also decided to kill off its Gesture Control feature.

BMW has confirmed that it will be discontinuing the iDrive rotary knob. The click-wheel controller debuted 24 years back in the 2001 BMW 7-Series, before becoming a standard across all models.

The rotary knob has already been eliminated on certain models like the X2 and has been replaced with touchscreen controls. However, with the arrival of BMW's newest Panoramic iDrive system, the knob will be retired across all models.

Joern Freyer, Head of User Interaction, BMW, stated that the decision to remove the knob was based on data. It showed that on recent versions of iDrive, customers moved towards touchscreen controls, leaving the rotary knob to be hardly used. The lack of engagement with the knob resulted in BMW no longer needing to design its software to work via two different controls.

Apart from the rotary knob, BMW has also decided to kill off its Gesture Control feature.

Source: Road&Track