BMW unveils the future iDrive operating system for its electric cars, with a windshield that acts as a panoramic screen in the form of an intelligent head-up display.
Little throwback. When we first heard of iDrive at BMW, the word sounded super futuristic. It must be said that we were in 2001. It was six years before the iPhone which launched the fashion of the prefix “i” put in all sauces. Beyond the simple word, it was the technology that was futuristic.
Moreover, it is the very high-end BMW 7 Series that inaugurated it. Imagine: in the center of the dashboard, a screen. Yes, a screen! And to control it and display the navigation or the media, a knob in the center of the center console. Mad !
What seems sadly banal today was worthy of a science fiction film at the time. What was less so was the user manual for this new iDrive system at the time: some 700 pages to go over! And this is where we measure the progress made since BMW presented its new generation iDrive at the Munich 2023 show.
An immersive screen windshield
Integrated into the BMW Neue Klasse concept which gives us a taste of the technologies and solutions of the electric BMWs which will be on the roads from 2025, this new generation iDrive system goes in the direction of intuitiveness and simplicity. Exit the wheel and even almost all the analog controls, everything or almost is done by touch.
There are still a few multifunction buttons on the hyper futuristic steering wheel, barely visible, but here the interaction is done through the BMW Panoramic Vision, already discovered at CES in Las Vegas. But compared to the i Vision Dee concept on which it appeared, here it is closer to an upcoming series arrival.
It is a head-up display with a projection of a whole new magnitude since it is displayed across the entire width of the windshield. The information displayed is therefore both visible to the driver but also to his and his passengers. But another head-up display is superimposed on the first, exclusively for the driver, displaying information in 3D.
There is of course a central display in the BMW Neue Klasse, although having a very special shape, from which the driver can send information to the panoramic head-up display with a simple gesture.
Lighting in tune
Ambient lighting is part of this all-new user interface with lighting moods that correspond to different modes and specific displays on the central screen. For example, yellow was chosen to convey a sporty atmosphere.
In addition, BMW explains to us that its BMW iDrive makes it possible to cross-reference infotainment data with electronic and electrical data from the car and the BMW Cloud, and this undoubtedly to display the most precise driving data available on the central screen and/or the panoramic screen. And be ready for level 5 autonomous driving!
Appointment is already given for 2025, the year during which BMW will put on the road its first production model from this Neue Klasse platform, most certainly the next generation of Series 3, and embedding the technologies presented on the eponymous concept.
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