- Panoramic Vision will display pillar-to-pillar information
- EVs and ICE cars are both tapped to receive the tech
- Look for it in Neue Klasse models starting from the end of 2025
Plunging ahead into a future filled with wall-to-wall screens, BMW has introduced a new take on its iDrive system. It is called Panoramic iDrive, and, along with a fresh software package named BMW Operating System X, it’s set to be part of the upcoming Neue Klasse models of BMW vehicle, regardless of drive type, from the end of 2025.
Those last four words are not a throwaway phrase meant to the pad word count of a German manufacturer’s new release. Instead, it underscores BMW’s plan that its ICE and EV models will take similar tacks in terms of interior interfaces, removing some of the distinction and learning curves which have historically been part-and-parcel of jumping into an electric vehicle. It’ll also likely help economies of scale during an era in which the brand will be making both types of machines, which surely pleases the bean-counters.
Enough pontificating. This new take on delivering information to vehicle occupants, allegedly a “close-to-production version” as shown at this year’s CES soirée in Vegas, merges a quartet of elements into a unique display concept. First, the so-called Panoramic Vision projects visible information from A-pillar to A-pillar onto a black printed surface in the lower section of the windscreen; it’s customizable in terms of content, and is visible to everyone in the car.
“Technology and customer preferences are changing more quickly than ever. The design of digital experiences and sound is playing an ever more important role,” says the Senior Vice President BMW Group Design, Adrian van Hooydonk.
Peering closely at these photos we find indicators for functions such as the headlamps, while steering column stalks and steering wheel spokes are heavily laden with controls. Gear selectors aren’t immediately apparent, suggesting they will remain somewhere in the console area instead of adopting a Mercedes-like approach to shifting.
An optional 3D head-up display will show navigation and automated driving information directly in the driver’s field of vision, and sounds an awful lot like what’s on tap today, just with a few visual tweaks to add a bit of depth. A central display operates in similar form to the tablet-style infotainment screens we know in present-day BMWs, but can interact with the new Panoramic Vision by gesture-driven swipes of the display. Finally, the steering wheel will sprout active haptic feedback controls to round out the festival of technology.
The new Operating System X permits all four of these pillars to work together, as they should, allowing a navigation destination requested by touch or voice to combine major route guidance on the heads-up display plus road or junction information on the Panoramic Vision area. BMW promises a “new level” of personalization with this setup, though we doubt the Germans will permit Comic Sans font or voice-overs by a Hollywood celeb.
This new software is based on Android Open Source, like the gear in place today, but the words ‘CarPlay’ or ‘Android Auto’ appeared precisely zero times in the bumf. If those features vanish, it would indeed be a bunch of Hooydonk. However, BMW does say this system carries over the scope for integration of third-party apps in equal form to its current-gen infotainment, so that’s positive. As mentioned, the new BMW Panoramic iDrive is scalable, and will be integrated into all new BMW models across all vehicle segments and drive system technologies from the end of 2025.