Where does BMW see its four brands in a future where the cars drive themselves?
SANTA MONICA, Calif.—On Tuesday, BMW showed off its four new concept cars
under one roof together for the first time. These cars included not
only the new BMW Motorrad Vision Next 100, but also a new futuristic
Rolls-Royce, Mini Cooper, and BMW. Each shows us that marque's view of
its place in a world where our vehicles are intelligent and drive
themselves, which some see as an existential threat to companies, like
BMW, that have made their reputations by focusing on driver engagement.
The star of the show, which took place in the Santa Monica Airport's
Barker Hanger, was BMW's new motorcycle, which combines previous models
revealed in Munich, London, and Beijing. The concepts also build on ideas that BMW showed us at CES in January,
notably the triangle-based UI for the BMW VISION NEXT 100, as well as
the way its seats move and cant together when in self-driving mode.
After some experiments with augmented reality, BMW's chief designer, Adrian van Hooydonk, thinks those full-screen heads-up displays some of us have been dreaming about will actually make it into our cars before too long.
"Today we already have a heads-up display in most of our BMWs. It's
projected onto the windscreen, but you experience it like it's augmented
reality. But we're working on technology that can improve the display
area, making it larger, and eventually we envision that the whole
windscreen will become a projection area," he told Ars. An exact
timeline is dependent on the company's suppliers, but van
Hooydonk thought that "within one to two vehicle generations the system
will be ready for production."
The collection of BMW VISION NEXT 100 concepts is on display at the
Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, California, and is free and open to the
public until October 16.
Listing image by Cyrus Farivar
