BMW has been peppering us with teasers and bits and pieces about its next-gen EV platform, Neue Klasse, for so long — fully two years now — that I confess I’ve become a bit numb to the hype. I’d seen the dashboard-filling displays, talked to engineers endlessly about the completely retooled active safety suite, and even got a go behind the wheel of a prototype machine.
Technology
BMW iX3 first drive: a ‘New Class’ is in session
All this for the launch of a crossover SUV, typically the most milquetoast of all the automotive classifications. But after spending the better part of a day wheeling around the final version of the iX3, I’m surprised to say it was all worth it. This little(ish) SUV really is a game changer on multiple fronts, a major step forward for BMW’s electric efforts, and a machine that might even be good enough to beat the EV sales slump.
For carmakers, platforms are key. They’re the core elements that allow relatively quick and inexpensive development of multiple new models without having to completely reinvent core elements like chassis, engines, suspension, and software. Neue Klasse (German for “New Class”) is BMW’s latest and greatest new platform, intended to form the foundation of a series of EVs to come.
The iX3 is the first of those, a compact SUV that’s more or less the same size as BMW’s existing X3, offering similar amounts of cargo and space for five passengers. This new platform tucks the battery down low and pushes its two motors to the front and rear. None of that is novel in the EV space, but most of BMW’s previous EVs have relied on platforms designed for internal combustion. This one’s optimized for EVs from the beginning.
There’s a 108.7kWh usable battery pack in there, powering the pair of motors that, combined, offer 463 horsepower and 476 pound-feet of torque through all four wheels. Maximum range will be around 400 miles (EPA testing has not yet been completed), 40-odd more than Tesla’s longest-range Model Y.
BMW’s engineers told me that the iX3’s new electrical architecture is really the key, including more efficient motors and silicon-carbide inverters. It charges faster, too, at up to 400kW if you can find a plug backed by enough juice. That’ll be a NACS plug, by the way, as this will be BMW’s first to support the Tesla-style connector.
A quick glance in the cabin of the iX3 reveals the SUV’s biggest tech upgrade: the pillar-to-pillar Panoramic Vision display. Think of it like an ultra-widescreen heads-up display that acts as a gauge cluster on the left, but has six customizable sections in the middle and the right where you can display anything from efficiency information to whatever’s playing on Spotify.
Enough never being enough, the iX3 also has an actual 3D heads-up display that projects above the Panoramic Vision, plus a 17.9-inch, 3,340 x 1,440 rhomboid-shaped touchscreen for good measure. It’s display overload and a little overwhelming the first time you get in the car, but I found it to be seamless enough to not be a distraction. If it all seems like a bit too much for you, it’s easy enough to disable the more expansive or attention-grabbing display sections.
The in-car experience is paired with an upgraded My BMW app that not only lets you remotely park the car from outside and get a 3D view of the inside or outside of the car; you can even queue up playlists on your phone or give your passengers control to do the same from their own devices.
To experience the more important tech upgrades, though, you need to be behind the wheel.
Taking back control from many of today’s more advanced active safety systems in cars can sometimes feel like wrestling. Often, a firm yank of the wheel is required to override a lane-centering system, which can result in a disconcertingly jerky experience for your passengers.
The iX3, on the other hand, is designed to be totally seamless. If you have BMW’s Highway Assistant enabled, it’ll steer itself in most situations on the highway, but you can just reach up and grab the wheel whenever you like. There’s no resistance to overcome, and if you let go the car just takes over again.
Even if you want to change lanes the car can help you there. When prompted, glance in the mirror and the car will change lanes on its own. Or, if you grab the wheel and change lanes yourself, the car will apply the turn signal for you automatically.
BMW’s system will also stay enabled if you hit the brake pedal. You can come to a complete stop if you like, then release the brake and the car will smoothly bring itself back up to speed. The system stays engaged until you turn it off — or hit the brakes more aggressively — working with you instead of against you.
This new safety system feels a bit odd at first. It took me some time to figure out when it was on and when it was off. But, after a few minutes on the highway, I got into the groove of things. It really did feel more like working collaboratively with the car instead of having its systems constantly turning on and off. The hands-off system worked extremely well, too, cleanly moving through traffic.
It wasn’t until I hit some secondary country roads that I could get a feel for just how good the iX3 was to drive, though. That dual-motor setup means full-time all-wheel drive, but the power split between those two motors changes depending on what drive mode you’re in. The car feels safe and secure in Personal, the regular drive mode. Drive it as aggressively as you want and it just has a calm, predictable nature that makes it easy to keep pointed in the right direction without too much input from the driver.
To experience the more important tech upgrades, you need to be behind the wheel
Switch over to Sport, though, and the tail kicks out just a bit under hard acceleration, making the iX3 feel like a traditional, rear-driven BMW. This isn’t a rocket ship, but it is quick and the suspension strikes a great balance between predictable, comfortable handling and sporty response. Even the steering feels sharp and has respectable feedback, just like BMWs of old.
In a lot of ways, this wholly new package feels like a return to form, a new SUV that has engaging driving and safety at its core but blends in enough luxury and refinement to keep its premium cachet. But it isn’t a sure-fire success. For one thing, there’s the look. BMW has been pushing boundaries with many of its latest designs, and the iX3 certainly has an edgy style. After initially hating it, I have to admit that after a day behind the wheel I quickly warmed up to the iX3’s appearance, particularly when viewed from the rear.
Even if you like the SUV’s style, there’s still the question of cost. BMW hasn’t set formal pricing for the 2026 BMW iX3 yet, only that it will start around $60,000. That puts it at least $10,000 more than a base, gas-powered X3 SUV. With federal EV incentives no longer at play, that delta could be a difficult one for many shoppers to stomach.
But, despite sharing most of a name, these two SUVs feel worlds apart. With enough range and fast enough charging to obliterate range anxiety, plus with an abundance of volume, handling, and comfort, the EV is the obvious play for those with room in their budget.
Photography by Tim Stevens
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RAMageddon has come for computers. The price of memory chips, hard drives, and solid state storage has skyrocketed. That’s led to price increases on desktop and laptop RAM, SSDs, spinning hard drives, and pretty much everything that uses any of those things. Consoles are more expensive. Desktops are more expensive. Laptops are more expensive. Tablets and phones are more expensive. Even MacBooks, which started out expensive but then started looking like a pretty good deal, just got more expensive.
All that sucks. But if (if) there’s a silver lining, it’s that most of the stuff you plug into a computer — keyboards, mice, webcams, monitors, and so forth — isn’t getting bananas expensive. Actually, there are some good deals out there.
Great keyboards on the cheap
Hot deals on mice in your area
Monitors to watch (get it?)
Cases and stands, hubs and docks, and other stuff
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Robots have gotten very good at moving fast, repeating steps and doing jobs that would wear you and me out. But ask a robot to pick up something delicate, oddly shaped or slightly different from the last item it handled, and things can get a little complicated quickly.
That is where a new collaboration between ABB Robotics and PSYONIC comes in. ABB Robotics is working with PSYONIC, a California bionics company, to explore whether real-world touch and motion data from human prosthetic use can help train robotic arms.
In other words, the same kind of bionic hand that helps a person grip a tool, pick up a fragile object or adjust pressure in real time could help teach robots how to do those tasks better.
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SOFT ROBOTIC ARMBAND GIVES PROSTHETIC HAND USERS NATURAL CONTROL
The PSYONIC Ability Hand can capture touch, motion and grip-force data from real human prosthetic use. (ABB Robotics)
How a bionic hand could teach a robot
The collaboration centers on PSYONIC’s Ability Hand and ABB’s GoFa cobot. The Ability Hand was originally developed for prosthetic use. It has multi-articulating fingers, pressure sensors, vibration feedback and flexible mechanics that help it conform to irregular objects. That combination is important because human grip isn’tt one fixed action. You hold a coffee cup differently than a screwdriver. You handle an egg differently than a phone. Most of us do that without thinking about it.
For robots, that instinctive adjustment is hard. ABB and PSYONIC want to explore how movement, contact and grip-force data from the Ability Hand can help train robots to handle objects that are fragile, uneven or unpredictable. ABB’s GoFa cobot brings the industrial side of the equation, offering the accuracy and repeatability needed to test those movements in a controlled way. The result could be a robot arm that learns from real human handling data, then applies that information to factory and warehouse tasks.
Why robot grip is such a hard problem
Industrial robots can already lift, move, weld, sort and assemble with impressive speed. However, many still struggle when a task involves subtle touch. Think about a robot picking up a soft package, a medical component or a part that shifts slightly on a conveyor belt. Too much pressure can damage the item. Too little pressure can make the robot drop it. A tiny change in angle can throw off the whole process.
JOB-KILLING ROBOT LEARNS AT WORK, AND IT’S COMING TO THE FACTORY FLOOR
That is why gripping and dexterity remain major challenges in automation. ABB calls this a key part of Autonomous Versatile Robotics, or AVR, its vision for robots that can sense, reason, move and handle objects with precision in changing environments.
Marc Segura, president of ABB Robotics, put it this way: Human dexterity remains “one of the most difficult things to replicate in industrial-grade robotics.” He said the collaboration with PSYONIC could help “close the long-standing gap” between human and robot dexterity. That gap is where this technology could make a real difference.
What makes the PSYONIC Ability Hand different
The PSYONIC Ability Hand was built to help people. It uses myoelectric control, touch sensing and compliant mechanics in a lightweight design. Its sensors can detect pressure during a grip, while vibration feedback can help communicate touch back to the person using it. That same sensing ability could be valuable for robots.
AI ENABLES PARALYZED MAN TO CONTROL ROBOTIC ARM WITH BRAIN SIGNALS
PSYONIC says the Ability Hand can capture detailed data about movement, contact and grip force. When that hand is used by people in real-world situations, it can generate a more natural dataset than a lab-only robot demonstration.
ABB’s GoFa cobot is being used to test how bionic hand data could help robots handle delicate and irregular objects. (ABB Robotics)
Dr. Aadeel Akhtar, founder and CEO of PSYONIC, called dexterous manipulation “a data challenge as much as a hardware challenge.” That line really gets to the heart of this. Better robot hands are important. Yet the training data behind those hands may be what decides how useful they become in real workplaces.
Where bionic hand data could show up first
ABB and PSYONIC say this work could apply across automotive, aerospace, packaging, logistics and life sciences. That makes sense. These are industries where robots already play a major role, but where delicate or variable handling can still slow things down. A robot that can better adjust its grip could help with fragile components, oddly shaped products, soft packaging or repetitive tasks that are tough on the body.
HUMANOID ROBOTS HANDLE QUALITY CHECKS AND ASSEMBLY AT AUTO PLANT
The International Federation of Robotics has also pointed to advanced gripping and digital integration as a way to reduce engineering time by up to 30%. That’s important for companies because automation often gets delayed by setup, tuning and custom engineering. If touch-enabled robotic hands can reduce some of that work, companies could deploy robots faster and use them in more flexible ways.
How touch-trained robots could change factory work
There is a hopeful side to this. Robots that handle repetitive or ergonomically challenging work could reduce strain on people. That could mean fewer workers stuck doing the same painful motion all day. However, there is also a bigger labor question here. More capable robots could take on tasks that once seemed too variable to automate. That may affect how companies hire, train and assign work in the future.
The most useful version of this technology would support people instead of simply replacing them. For example, robots could handle the repetitive gripping while workers focus on oversight, quality checks, machine setup and higher-skill work.
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Kurt’s key takeaways
ABB Robotics and PSYONIC are taking a different approach to one of robotics’ hardest problems: touch. Instead of training robots only in a lab, they want to use real movement and grip data from a bionic hand that people already use. That could help robots become better at delicate, variable tasks that have traditionally been hard to automate. It could also push industrial robots closer to working safely and effectively around humans in more settings. But the human side should not get lost in the excitement. If robots are going to learn from human touch, companies need to be clear about data use, workplace impact and safety testing.
The collaboration could help robots become more useful in factories, warehouses and other workplaces where precise grip matters. (ABB Robotics)
Would you feel comfortable knowing a robot at work was trained using real human touch data? Let us know by writing to us at CyberGuy.com.
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Amazon’s Prime Day is now in its second day, and whether you’re looking for a new pair of wireless earbuds or a smartwatch, there’s a good chance you’ll find a discount. The Apple Watch Series 11 has already dropped to a new low price, while the AirPods Pro 3 are discounted to $179. With Tim Cook warning that price hikes are coming, now may be the moment if you’ve been eyeing one of the company’s devices.
Below are the best Apple deals currently available. Some are exclusive to Prime Day, while others are simply great discounts we think are worth highlighting. We’ll continue updating this guide throughout Prime Day, highlighting more deals as they become available.
Earbud and headphone deals
Update, June 24th: Adjusted prices and availability, and added deals for Apple’s MagSafe Charger as well as the Apple Magic Keyboard.
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