At CES this week, BMW introduced a brand new iDrive working system with an eye catching 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 street 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, informed a bunch of journalists at a preview occasion held close to BMW’s huge Spartanburg, South Carolina, plant in November final yr. “Pushing the show nearer to the road will assist drivers make faster selections, which is able to make it simpler to maintain your eyes on the street.”
BMW eradicated the standard gauge cluster within the sprint
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, based on BMW.
BMW, like many automakers, is following in Tesla’s minimalistic footsteps by reducing down on screens and dials contained in the automobile. Whereas BMW isn’t the primary to remove the sprint cluster and as a substitute undertaking it onto the windshield, it’s an fascinating transfer for a corporation with the tagline “Final Driving Machine,” and its drivers have traditionally most well-liked traditional dials and gauges within the sprint.
BMW isn’t actually fearful about any backlash, chief expertise officer Frank Weber informed me — although there have been some members of the corporate’s board who had been a bit involved when first offered with the concept.
Weber mentioned the brand new arrange is not like having a video display in your automotive, however fairly an added layer of augmented actuality that retains driver and automotive extra related to the street. “You’re related to the automotive, and the automotive is related to the street. It’s precisely the place you’ll anticipate the data to be,” he added.
Your dashboard on the windshield
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 slender black strip on the backside of the windshield that stretches between A-pillars. The show is three-dimensional and contains pace, adaptive driving help info, stoplight and street signal info, navigation info, and state of cost. It’s customizable, too, permitting drivers to arrange the data they need to have of their eyeline whereas on the street.
In contrast to different HUDs, the place it’s important to be on the proper angle to see the data displayed, BMW says the brand new show might 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 concentrate on increased ranges of automated driving,” Bauer mentioned, “then ADAS and navigation naturally come collectively.” He additionally famous that lots of the options of the brand new HUD happened because of buyer suggestions. BMW already provides some hands-off autonomous driving options on marked highways.
Although the windshield is the show floor, it’s not a specialty windshield and received’t price further to interchange if it will get a rock chip, BMW mentioned. A particular movie on the windshield helps make the 3D photos seem crisp and clear. And the black print that the HUD is projected onto is the usual black print on all different automobiles.
Customizable infotainment display
Along with making a full-windshield HUD, BMW additionally launched a brand new rhombus-shaped middle infotainment display that provides a extra customizable interface. Customers can drag and drop “pixels,” or apps that they use incessantly, into a few most important bins on the house display so they’re extra available. In keeping with BMW, the corporate does have plans to supply a BMW app retailer for the brand new UX, which might embrace paid apps for issues like particular lighting packages, much like Hyundai’s plans for the upcoming Ioniq 9.
BMW says it’s utilizing edge AI to “be taught” from the shopper as they drive and supply related options based mostly on habits. For instance, should you incessantly take a winding street house from work, put the automobile into Sport mode, and cue up your music app, these choices will often pop into the middle display for simple entry. And should you incessantly 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’ll be able to ask the system to take you to a charging station near a grocery retailer, utilizing pure language, fairly 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 a number of extra buttons coated in a single piece of plastic, very similar to a medical machine. Every button lights up when the system is offered and provides 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 straightforward sufficient to navigate with out having the ability to see them. The buttons really feel much like these within the 2024 Mercedes Benz S-Class and are all inside straightforward attain.
BMW says that the brand new iDrive, UX, and inside setup will begin to seem in its automobiles on the finish of 2025.