BMW’s new iDrive turns the entire windshield right into a heads-up show

At CES this week, BMW introduced a brand new iDrive working system with an attention grabbing centerpiece: a 3D heads-up show (HUD) that stretches from pillar to pillar alongside the windshield. 

Included on this futuristic setup is a brand new steering wheel with haptic buttons and a brand new augmented actuality system that layers navigation instructions and driver help with highway info. And maybe probably the most noticeable change: BMW eradicated the standard gauge cluster within the sprint in favor of a customizable digital model projected onto the windshield.

“We’ve taken on a brand new perspective in designing the UX,” Christian Bauer, the top of digital and UX at BMW, advised a bunch of journalists at a preview occasion held close to BMW’s large Spartanburg, South Carolina, plant in November final yr. “Pushing the show nearer to the road will assist drivers make faster choices, which is able to make it simpler to maintain your eyes on the highway.”

The brand new system will seem within the upcoming-but-yet-unnamed X-class SUV that BMW is constructing on the all-electric Neue Klasse platform. That SUV will make its debut on the finish of 2025, in line with BMW. 

BMW, like many automakers, is following in Tesla’s minimalistic footsteps by slicing down on screens and dials contained in the automobile. Whereas BMW isn’t the primary to eradicate the sprint cluster and as a substitute venture it onto the windshield, it’s an attention-grabbing transfer for an organization with the tagline “Final Driving Machine,” and its drivers have traditionally most popular basic dials and gauges within the sprint.

BMW isn’t actually fearful about any backlash, chief expertise officer Frank Weber advised me — regardless that there have been some members of the corporate’s board who had been a bit involved when first introduced with the thought.

Weber mentioned the brand new arrange is now not like having a video display screen in your automobile, however somewhat an added layer of augmented actuality that retains driver and automobile extra linked to the highway. “You might be linked to the automobile, and the automobile is linked to the highway. It’s precisely the place you’d anticipate the knowledge to be,” he added.

This isn’t the primary time that BMW has teased the brand new heads-up show known as BMW Panoramic iDrive. The corporate confirmed off a model of it at CES 2023 within the iVision Dee idea, and it’s all a part of the brand new platform known as BMW Working System X. 

The brand new heads-up show runs alongside the slim black strip on the backside of the windshield that stretches between A-pillars. The show is three-dimensional and contains velocity, adaptive driving help info, stoplight and highway signal info, navigation info, and state of cost. It’s customizable, too, permitting drivers to arrange the knowledge they wish to have of their eyeline whereas on the highway.

Not like different HUDs, the place you need to be on the proper angle to see the knowledge displayed, BMW says the brand new show will likely be seen to each the driving force and passenger. 

BMW additionally built-in navigation and ADAS options within the HUD in order that the trail you’re following turns inexperienced when utilizing onboard navigation with driver help. “If you consider greater ranges of automated driving,” Bauer mentioned, “then ADAS and navigation naturally come collectively.” He additionally famous that most of the options of the brand new HUD took place because of buyer suggestions. BMW already affords some hands-off autonomous driving options on marked highways. 

Although the windshield is the show floor, it isn’t a specialty windshield and gained’t price additional to switch if it will get a rock chip, BMW mentioned. A particular movie on the windshield helps make the 3D photographs seem crisp and clear. And the black print that the HUD is projected onto is the usual black print on all different autos. 

Along with making a full-windshield HUD, BMW additionally launched a brand new rhombus-shaped heart infotainment display screen that gives a extra customizable interface. Customers can drag and drop “pixels,” or apps that they use ceaselessly, into a few fundamental packing containers on the house display screen so they’re extra available. Based on BMW, the corporate does have plans to supply a BMW app retailer for the brand new UX, which might embody paid apps for issues like particular lighting packages, just like Hyundai’s plans for the upcoming Ioniq 9. 

BMW says it’s utilizing edge AI to “study” from the shopper as they drive and supply related options primarily based on habits. For instance, in case you ceaselessly take a winding highway house from work, put the automobile into Sport mode, and cue up your music app, these choices will repeatedly pop into the middle display screen for simple entry. And in case you ceaselessly take heed to meditation apps or podcasts whereas charging your EV, these apps will pop into the middle stack everytime you’re plugged in.

BMW says it’s additionally utilizing giant language fashions to assist make the automobile smarter about what drivers need. BMW’s pure voice recognition system has been a category chief for a while, however now the corporate is leveraging LLMs to make navigation a bit simpler. For instance, you may ask the system to take you to a charging station near a grocery retailer, utilizing pure language, somewhat than having to make use of particular key phrases.

Along with updating its OS, BMW has additionally reimagined the steering wheel within the upcoming Neue Klasse. The brand new model has fairly just a few extra buttons coated in a single piece of plastic, very like a medical gadget. Every button lights up when the system is accessible and affords haptic suggestions when pushed. 

BMW allow us to expertise an approximation of the HUD and use a few of the haptic buttons on a VR rig in November, forward of the CES announcement. Whereas it was unattainable to get an impression of the imagery’s real-world readability on the windshield, the haptic buttons had been simple sufficient to navigate with out with the ability to see them. The buttons really feel just like these within the 2024 Mercedes Benz S-Class and are all inside simple attain.

BMW says that the brand new iDrive, UX, and inside setup will begin to seem in its autos on the finish of 2025.