[snareman]

Originally Posted by sikotic

This was the first thought that came to my mind as well.

Agreed it looks dumb and upside down, but like they at least included some thumb holes for proper 9 and 3 hand position.

[Presice]

People: Hey can we have a couple of more buttons?

BMW: How about more screens?

[Ozzie8]

Always interested in new developments and technology. Good to see BMW pushing the boundaries. As a driver we just need things to be practical and to be able to evolve with the tech changes.

The steering wheel concept could be quite exciting. I quite like the shape. One idea is for some programmable buttons on the back side of the steering wheel in easy reach of your fingers. Lets say there are four on each side in a vertical pattern so you could use all four fingers on your left and right hand to operate them. Lots of possibilities. Top left button with index finger could be volume down, and the right one volume up. Bottom left button with pinky finger could be temperature down, the right one temperature up.

To the BMW design team who may be reading this thread, this would enable you to have what you want - no visible buttons - and enable us to have what we want as drivers - a button to perform a simple task quickly without taking our eye off the road. What I'm seeing in the pictures is a steering wheel with a different shape, but the buttons and functions on the steering wheel largely the same. I suspect most of us want a button for the thing we like to do frequently.

When I drive I like air recirculation ON. While modern cars are very good at screening bad smells from trucks/buses, unfortunately they are not good enough for my nose. So the first thing I do at start up in my BMW is to switch air recirculation ON, as the default at start up is OFF. Previously I had options. Firstly there was the physical air recirculation button which was removed many moons ago. Then we had the physical programmable buttons which were removed some moons ago. Of course I discovered coding and was then able to code the car to remember the air recirculation setting ON at start up. But with my latest car, coding is also no longer an option. So the method I have now come to, is to save air recirculation ON as a function in the short cuts menu, and then add a "two finger" gesture control option to this shortcut. So I get in the car, start it up and then give it the "two fingers". Please can I have a programmable button, I suggest on the back of the steering wheel?

The next item I wanted to comment on was the concept of a 3D heads up display. Again very promising with a lot of exciting possibilities. It might be possible to replicate the whole main drivers display of today in a 3D heads up representation. However, fortunately or unfortunately which ever way you look at it, I live in a sun blessed country and so I wear polarized sun glasses which of course severely impairs the heads up display picture. Please can I have a heads up display with with a "reverse polarization" option so I can see things clearly when I'm wearing my sunnies? Without stretching the friendship, could this be a programmable button?

Then to Panoramic Vision (PV). Another exciting development full of possibilities. But just what are those possibilities and what are the use cases? I mean if I had it today, how would I use it, conceding this may be one of those tech inventions that once you have it you cannot believe how you ever lived without it. But let me have a go:

- Navigation: PV could lay out my turn list horizontally across the screen as I proceed to my destination.

- Music: PV could lay out the Artist, Album, Year and Track I am listening to horizontally, or it could lay out the playlist with currently playing and upcoming.

- Messages: PV could present an incoming message like a ticker tape across the screen so I could read it.

- Reversing: PV could present a full left to right picture using multiple reversing cameras to stitch together a panoramic view of what is behind my car.

Perhaps I'm not thinking laterally enough, and real wow of PV is yet to be unveiled. It's also important to talk about size. The PV may look fantastic in a 1 or 2 Series sedan, but I'm in an iX and my front windscreen is massive. I will definitely need to wear my reading glasses to see from one side of the windscreen to the other. Will it be possible to disable say the last third of the display, so I can see everything? If so could I have a programmable button for that too?

Lastly to the new central display. Sorry but it looks weird. I conducted a search to see if this shape is formally defined and the best I could up with is an irregular hexagon. To go with the creative BMW designer panache perhaps you could call it the IRREON. At this stage its not clear how IRREON integrates with the steering wheel and PV, perhaps more to come on this front. But in looking at the shape the left hand side does have a vertical oblique column which runs from top to bottom. Is there space here to list out all of the functions tied to the programmable buttons on the rear of the steering wheel?

[White340]

Tesla really f*cked up automotive design. First the exterior shitshow and now this complete basic bitch interior.

[NYR]

The Tesla-faction of cars is a disgrace. I just sold my piece of garage Tesla Model 3 and got an M3 Competition - it is like a completely different world, can't believe I wasted my money on that Tesla trash, totally got hyped into it and it was a huge mistake, only people who thought it was cool was my nephew's friends at his junior high.

Shameful car brands are going downstream to horrible rural soccer mom taste trash.

I was part of the problem, thank god I am part of the solution and bought the 2025 M3 Competition.

[jmg]

As someone who used to watch The Jetsons, wanted a flying car from Back To The Future 2, and idolized Michael Knight, the future can't come any sooner. Change is good, change is exciting, even with all the bumps along the way. It won't be perfect the first go, but it has to start somewhere, and the will to take a risk is something that was missing the past few decades. We are better off soaking this in, making constructive criticism with an open mind not stuck in the past, so we can end up with a better product in the future. "I miss analog" is a nice sentiment, but it doesn't move us forward. This is the future, let's make it the best it can be.

[Cortexiphan]

Originally Posted by Salespunk

Can't wait for my wife to see how fast I am driving at all times!

Seriously though, as a previous owner of a 2006 Civic Hybrid these "gauge" placements suck. For people that don't want to drive it is fine, but in a performance vehicle a big no thank you. I am pissing in the wind, but I miss round physical gauges. I really want to go buy an F10 or E90, but I also don't want to deal with the maintenance.

Gauge placements have nothing to do with Civic gauge placements.

[Tejas1836]

So Beta testing will be completed by consumers by 2028-2029
Early adopters will need their own servers for the forum

[techwhiz1]

I just watched the YouTube on the BMW I drive X

The display along the bottom is interesting, but I fail to see any functionality beyond the centerline that would be useful enforcement the driver.

With no gauges cluster, everything would need to be in a HUD. But HUD has limitations.

I don't like BMW leaning towards Tesla.

I don't like the icons on the bottom of the center screen and prefer them on the left like my current car. (i4 M50). I have driven a car with 8.5 and don't like it. Looks like my M2 on order will have 8.5. oh well.

[brianeck]

Originally Posted by MartinInKansas

Given the industry move away from physical buttons and controls, this seems OK.

I like the idea of a windshield display vs a larger “tablet” screen.

One or the other sure. But a giant trapezoid iPad, with a giant heads up display, with a higher secondary heads up display above the regular heads up display? This is like an onion article.

[Ev0lutionx]

Different but interesting. Will have to see and experience it firsthand. They seem to be getting away from combustion engines and going electric, so I can see them going this direction in the future.

[thereef510]

Originally Posted by ASAP

there would have been nothing wrong w a few minor updates to idrive 7 and stopping there... everything since looks impressive but offers nothing over older idrive versions

Both my x5 and z4 have idrive 7. Would you believe that after idrive 7, BMW even got rid of one of the most intuitive features they ever created: automated climate comfort rules where you could set the temp for the heated seats and steering wheel to turn on at a user selectable temperature threshold. It requires no buttons, just programming, and in their infinite wisdom, they got rid of it in idrive 8 and 9.

Idk what these fools are doing, but idrive 7 continues to remain at peak BMW infotainment design and every press release makes my G series cars even more valuable by the day. The Chinese can have these new disco dance floor interiors.

[skyboum]

Why nobody is asking the most important question Which cars are getting this into 2026???

[hb]

Originally Posted by skyboum

Why nobody is asking the most important question Which cars are getting this into 2026???

All the new cars. iX3, i3, X5, potentially some major facelifts, but more on that soon.

[hb]

Originally Posted by snareman

So, I guess you can't say, but what would be the secret part about why they'd want that display?

Unique in the industry, frees up the dashboard from very large curved display and it's actually very easy to implement. So it seemed to be a no brainer according to them.

[eljay]

So, the evolution is...

Buttons > fancy buttons > buttons with touchpads on them (remember how we were supposed to write letters on buttons?) > screens conrolled by buttons > touchscreens > and now screens controlled by touchscreens

And 90% of the awesome cool functions that engineers spent $$$ on, will never be used/changed again after the first set up.

Kind of like that RGB LED strip you buy because it has 400 million special effects, only to be set to warm write and occasionally changed to red/green for Christmas for 10 mins and back to white again.

[2srsman]

Can't wait to see this in production

[XK4]

Doesn't really work for me. I like the panoramic heads-up, but I much prefer the real buttons of iDrive 7. Easy for me to use while driving and easy for me to tell my passenger which button to press for heated seats, temp change, etc.

[oz555]

I hope Mr. Trump will liberate BMW like Canada two days before.

[G80indy]

Honda Prelude from the 90s meets Tesla

[JK479]

There is a bright side! There are physical stalks for the turning signals. At least those aren’t buried in the steering wheel like Tesla.

[Chas8283]

I’m shocked how little I look at the gauge screen ahead of me, instead using the HUD 90% of the time, so I guess part of me gets this (at least as an interesting thought exercise). But what about this feels luxury? Or feels sporty? Or has any BMW brand identity? Swap the logo on the wheel and this interior could slot into any car (including at a low price point). Will wait to see the final but it continues to be harder and harder to explain why I think BMW is better than others.