BMW 7-Series car review: Martin Love

BMW's flagship saloon is the epitome of elegant discretion. And to drive it you barely need to lift a finger"

Price: 66,200
Top speed: 155mph
0-62mph: 6.1 seconds
MPG: up to 60.1

When motorists make a gesture with their fingers it's usually rude. But the svelte new 7-Series from BMW is on a mission to change that. It's the first car to feature "gesture control". Using a tiny camera hidden in the centre of the dashboard it captures your hand movements so that when you wave, swipe, jab or twist your fingers in mid-air you perform various functions. You can answer or reject phone calls, zoom in and out of the map, or adjust the volume of the radio. It's quite a party trick. Though, in keeping with most modern technology, it doesn't always do what you want, so you usually end up using your fingers in the traditional way - to press buttons. For the sake of thoroughness I used my fingers to make a rude gesture at the car. But it politely ignored me.