BMW’s presence at CES 2017 in Las Vegas is a curious one. Last year, they brought a special roofless i8 that had its interior reworked to showcase their new HoloActive Touch technology that would allow a more advanced vehicle-driver interface through gestures.
That bespoke i8, though striking with its futuristic cabin, doorless body, and lack of roof, didn’t actually have a chance to display its more traditional car functions (like actually moving), which is probably why Bimmer chose to not bring a car at all for 2017.
Instead, what we have here is a sculpture shaped roughly like an automobile, entirely meant to showcase the innovations to the interior. It’s called the BMW i Inside Future that envisions a car that embraces an open cabin layout with ample room for passengers to manoeuvre and do as they please.
And though it’s packed to the gills with technology, BMW wanted nearly none of it in the foreground. It’s very minimal - and therefore more futuristic - looking and focuses far less on the driving experience than it is about comfort and convenience. In this sense, this direction is against the attributes we’ve come to associate with BMW, and clearly they see ‘Sheer Driving Pleasure’ as a very fluid concept that can either mean an engaging, visceral experience in, say, an M car, or a relaxing journey where the car takes care of everything.
Of course, autonomy and self-driving technology play a big part in why this interior showcase is designed the way it is. The driver isn’t meant to drive the car at all the majority of the time, freeing them up to get some work done, watch a movie, or even….clip their toenails while they're brought to their destination in their intelligent BMW.
The latest evolution of the HoloActive Touch interface is on display here in the form of a mega-wide screen that spans the entire width of the dashboard, displaying relevant information when needed or otherwise blending into the dark background material. Presumably, interaction will be done primarily through voice, gesture control, and touch, both via the portrait screen that replaces the centre stack.
A second feature that BMW is looking to premiere alongside the input technology is the ‘Personal Sound Curtain’, which uses ultrasonic waves to create an individual zone to allow passengers to listen to their own music without disturbing or overhearing someone else’s.
There are also books stacked on the floor of this BMW concept sculpture thing, and that’s quite likely that some people already do leave things of that kind (along with other random belongings) scattered in their car and not neatly stored as shown here. What we’re still scratching our heads about, though, is the open roof and those plants growing just beneath the second row seats.
Why?
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