00:00When it comes to cars, I'm a fan of buttons, but now that BMW is getting rid of all of them,
00:04I'm actually a fan of what they're doing instead. And it all comes down to the panoramic iDrive
00:09that's coming to all BMW models starting next year, and it's going to be in one car by the
00:13end of this year. And there's some key components that you need to know when it comes to this
00:17system. It all starts with a panoramic display that goes from the left side to the right side
00:22of the vehicle, and you can completely customize this with various apps and widgets to your
00:26preference. And all of the key information is right above the steering wheel, and it's a
00:30multifunction steering wheel, as you can see behind me. And those functions change based on what you're
00:36doing, and it actually pings you based on what's happening in the car. Probably the coolest thing
00:41about this whole thing is the heads-up display that it's 3D above the steering wheel. So in your
00:46real-world vision, when you're making turns, you'll actually see those turn signals and those indicators
00:51when you want to make them. You don't have to actually stare over to the central display
00:55if you don't want to, where the map is always there if you want it. But I'd rather have those
01:00directions right where I'm driving, and that's probably the best part about this whole thing.
01:04When it comes to the central display, that's actually customizable too. Now this is definitely
01:08larger than light that you'd see over my shoulder, but all of those buttons right there, there's a
01:13home button so you can always get back home, but all of the main functions are always at your
01:17fingertips. So you can scroll through them, like up and down to go to different features,
01:21or within an app, you can actually go left to right, so it's actually fairly intuitive.
01:26For me, the game-changing feature is the 3D heads-up display. Now a lot of people think
01:30that when it comes to technology in cars, it's really about distracting you, but what
01:33I'm seeing here is that BMW is flipping that on its head. Be sure to follow us at Tom's Guide
01:38across all of our social channels to see all the latest news from CES 2025, and I can't wait
01:43to test drive the real thing.
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