00:00When it comes to cars, I'm a fan of buttons, but now that BMW is getting rid of all of
00:04them,
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
00:35what you're doing, and it actually pings you based on what's happening in the car. Probably the
00:40coolest thing about this whole thing is the heads-up display that it's 3D above the steering
00:45wheel. So in your real-world vision, when you're making turns, you'll actually see those turn
00:50signals and those indicators when you want to make them. You don't have to actually stare over to the
00:55central display if you don't want to, where the map is always there if you want it. But I'd rather
00:59have
00:59those directions right where I'm driving, and that's probably the best part about this whole
01:04thing. When it comes to the central display, that's actually customizable too. Now this is
01:08definitely larger than life that you'd see over my shoulder, but all of those buttons right there,
01:13there's a home button so you can always get back home, but all of the main functions are always at
01:17your fingertips. 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. A lot of people think that when it
01:30comes
01:30to technology in cars, it's really about distracting you. But what I'm seeing here is that BMW is flipping
01:35that on its head. Be sure to follow us at Tom's Guide across all of our social channels to see
01:40all
01:40the latest news from CES 2025, and I can't wait to test drive the real thing.
Comments