[kosmokratur]

Night Vision is the one feature that I didn't get, that I think would have been useful (house is miles into a deer-infested forest). Reading others' builds, it seems like almost nobody ordered it. Does anyone have it? Does it work well? Just curious.

[Gautam]

I have it, I live in too urban of an area to put it to good use. It spots pedestrians at night very effectively. Haven't come across wildlife yet. Wish I could split screen it with CarPlay, but its either one or the other. The low take rate doesn't surprise me.

[LogicalApex]

I skipped it at build time. Everything I watched and read on it made me conclude the feature isn't all that useful. The upgraded headlights are a better use of money and was what I invested in.

The system will alert you to wildlife, but it won't actually brake or anything like that. It looked too passive in nature to be useful to me and potentially distracting (I'd have to look somewhere other than the road to see it and at night looking at the screens is worse not better for night visibility).

The upgraded headlights though. They are amazing and worth the investment.

[Opie55]

Originally Posted by kosmokratur

Night Vision is the one feature that I didn't get, that I think would have been useful (house is miles into a deer-infested forest). Reading others' builds, it seems like almost nobody ordered it. Does anyone have it? Does it work well? Just curious.

I have it on my 650. I think BMW has stopped offering it. I live in a city and so it's mostly useful as a party trick. It works the same in broad daylight, so it's fun to show people glowing mufflers and brake discs as cars pass by. If you drive down the street you can look at parked cars and see which cars have been driven recently and which have not because of the heat they give off. But in 6 years I've never used it for its intended purpose. I kinda forget I have it, honestly.

[bym007]

I bought a used car, which came with it. I live in semi rural area and frequently drive around wild life. Australian here, so plenty of wildlife around after dark, kangaroos being one, but never thought about putting it to use, after initial play.

It might have been more useful, but it popped up in HUD instead of taking up whole display screen. If I have to choose between Maps and IR cam, I would prefer the Maps on big screen.

I do have the Icon headlights, not sure what you mean by “upgraded headlights”, so they are pretty bright.

[LogicalApex]

Originally Posted by bym007

I bought a used car, which came with it. I live in semi rural area and frequently drive around wild life. Australian here, so plenty of wildlife around after dark, kangaroos being one, but never thought about putting it to use, after initial play.

It might have been more useful, but it popped up in HUD instead of taking up whole display screen. If I have to choose between Maps and IR cam, I would prefer the Maps on big screen.

I do have the Icon headlights, not sure what you mean by “upgraded headlights”, so they are pretty bright.

Upgrade headlights in the US are the Adaptive Full LED headlights.

The base LED headlights aren’t as bright as they have less lights.

In some markets BMW also offers laser lights on the G30.

[Qsilver7]

Originally Posted by Gautam

I have it, I live in too urban of an area to put it to good use. It spots pedestrians at night very effectively. Haven't come across wildlife yet. Wish I could split screen it with CarPlay, but its either one or the other. The low take rate doesn't surprise me.

From 9 years ago...judge it based on the time this video debuted. I'm not sure if it's gotten any better or worse:

Here's another video from 5 years ago:

[Joe-BMW33]

Curious, anyone know the original price of this option? We talking thousands or hundreds?

[Gautam]

Originally Posted by Joe-BMW33

Curious, anyone know the original price of this option? We talking thousands or hundreds?

About 3k. Might have been 2500.

[HerkHealer]

I remember the very first time I put on NVG's flying a night mission in a HC-130n in 1989.
The loadmaster told me to look out the scanner window at the stars.
Then he helped me get the NVG on my helmet, told me to look again, and turned it on.

The ENTIRE sky turned white. Everything. It's amazing how many stars are there that we cannot see with our eyes.

[Joe-BMW33]

Originally Posted by Gautam

About 3k. Might have been 2500.

Woah, totally not the bang for the buck.

[niju321]

I ordered my car (2019 540) with Night Vision and am very glad I did--it has paid for itself many times over by detecting animals before I could see them, even with the upgraded headlights. The most useful part in my opinion (more than the cool looking live display, which is only available on the center/entertainment display) is that the system automatically recognizes pedestrians and animals and will flash an alert on the HUD and instrument cluster when it detects something is about to cross one's path--no need to keep watching the screen. In countries with more enlightened headlight regulations, the lights will also point towards the detected person/animal and illuminate them (as detailed in this article https://www.extremetech.com/cars/193...in-my-next-car)
The take rate was quite low (perhaps a function of the high price)--I was disappointed to see it is evidently unavailable in any BMW now. The option was $2300 when I ordered my car. Hope it's back in time for my next purchase.

[NGT2]

Sounds cool. But if I were ordering in 2019, I’d order a lot of options for that money before that feature. Merino, Bowers, DHP come to mind. And maybe individual paint.