Anyone who has attended the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in recent years will have noticed that major automotive players have been dabbling in the realm of consumer technology. Autonomous driving, AI-powered voice assistants, and scores of high-definition touchscreens have been employed to capture column inches and take over TikTok feeds.
This year was no different, as BMW chose the platform to unveil the latest generation of its iconic iDrive infotainment system, which, unsurprisingly, now involves a downright terrifying amount of screen real estate.
The Panoramic iDrive offering, which will come to the upcoming BMW Neue Klasse inch central touch screen and, to top it all off, an independent head-up display that covers the entire width of the windshield.
As with most infotainment systems these days, the central touchscreen is customizable, in the sense that drivers can pin their most used apps and key information to the home screen. Judging by the images and videos published by BMW, there are at least three tiles available to constantly display information.
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What's more, the epic around-the-clock head-up display (HUD) offers space for up to six fully customizable widgets, while the three directly in front of the driver are reserved for key vehicle information such as speed and remaining battery charge.
We're already up to 12 information points, and that's before even considering the third and final head-up display that projects onto the windshield in front of the driver, which will show huge animated turn-by-turn directions when BMW Navigation is in use.
Some of the examples BMW cites when it comes to tiles that can be pinned to your around-view HUD are a weather app and a compass. Now call me old-fashioned, but can't you just look out the window to see what the weather is like and when was the last time you used a compass while driving? It's 2025, not 1925.
Finally, there's no word on how BMW's eye-catching widescreen display and slightly angled central touchscreen will interact with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, two systems that most of the driving public is perfectly happy with.
An industry problem
Calling out BMW alone would be a mistake, because Hyundai Mobis also revealed that it has created the world's first holographic full-windshield display, which transmits a wealth of information across the entire width of the windshield.
According to the Korean automotive supplier, its system uses a specialized film embedded with a holographic optical element (HOE), which uses the “principle of light diffraction to project images and videos directly into the viewer's eyes.” Say that?
Using a Kia EV9 as a testbed at this year's CES, it's easy to see this type of technology appearing in some of Hyundai Motor Group's more premium products in the coming years.
Harman also introduced its home theater-quality Ready Display, featuring Quantum Dot-based local dimming technology and Blue Mini LED. That's the specification of a high-end TV, stripped down to something that fits in a family SUV and will probably rarely be fully appreciated.
After all, when was the last time you watched a Hollywood blockbuster while waiting for your electric vehicle to charge?
Killing interior design
Meanwhile, Mercedes-Benz is set to release its new CLA model to the world soon and it comes with the promise of an “easy-to-use MBUX superscreen” that, at least in early prototypes, takes up the entire width of the cabin.
It's not that I'm necessarily anti-touchscreens in vehicles; After all, I write for a tech site. However, dedicating so much space to them, as Mercedes-Benz and BMW have chosen, leaves little or no room for individual acts of interesting physical design.
Go back a few years and car interiors looked very different: it was easy to differentiate between the extravagant interior flourishes of a Citroën and the more sophisticated polish of an Audi, for example.
But over-reliance on the digital space means that, without interior designers pushing for more exclusive physical elements, modern vehicle interiors look eerily similar, especially when turned off.
Consider the fact that many manufacturers have turned to Epic Games, which offers its Unreal Engine to produce much of the interface, and even the digital domain is becoming homogeneous.
I've noticed that the interface that displays an operating Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS), for example, is virtually the same in many modern cars. The small digital representations of trucks, cars and motorcycles captured by external cameras look virtually identical, whether you're in a Tesla or a Volvo EX90.
Of course, the notion of good design is a very personal thing, but there is also the complicated issue of user experience. Brands (ahem, Volkswagen) have had their fingers burned in the past, unleashing bouji, sparse interiors that might look like a Los Angeles star's apartment, but are a nightmare to use and live with.
Covering a vehicle's interior with screens and annoying haptic buttons usually comes at the expense of easy-to-locate physical switches that, when you're driving (a taxing task on the brain), are essential for safe, distraction-free driving.
Designing for the future
Right now, it appears that automotive companies are designing vehicle cabins for a time when high levels of autonomous driving are legal and common.
I'm not just talking about SAE Level 3, which allows drivers to “enjoy” driving under some pretty strict parameters (freeways, speeds under 30 mph, etc.), but Levels 4 and 5, where the vehicle does most of the work. heavy lifting.
We are still far from this technology becoming a reality, and from legislators creating an adequate legal framework for its widespread adoption. So the question arises: why do manufacturers choose to offer so much potentially distracting information now?
As if to protect themselves from a potential torrent of accusations of driver distraction, most modern manufacturers are also working with artificial intelligence and large language models to allow drivers and occupants to interact with their vehicles through voice prompts. natural, eliminating the need to manipulate a touch screen. or search buttons.
Having a vehicle predict when it's cold with a suite of cutting-edge biosensing technology is a very expensive and complicated way to admit that burying the climate control dial in a series of annoying submenus was probably a bad idea.
Listen, I understand that space age vehicle interiors are essentially what technological progress looks like, and I'm not suggesting we go back to the days of walnut trim and cigarette lighters (although wood interiors They're still great, IMHO).
But designing vehicles, scheduled for launch imminently, with Agency control room-level interactive displays seems counterintuitive.
Until the day comes when I can truly relax and enjoy what's on those screens, I want to be able to drive a vehicle, not pilot a Falcon 9.
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