Everybody’s favorite BMW source Herr26 (or Scott27 on other sites) has given us a walk-through scenario of the new iDrive. The concept revolves around several screens, gestures, touch-screens and augmented reality. How does it work? Read on.

Essentially this is about the user interface. Internet connectivity is all good and well but the deciding factor will now depend on how you deliver this information to the driver and the co-driver. ConnectedDrive is something already available in our vehicles today. This is the next development using familiar and more popular touch screen technology.

Here the driver enters a city he doesn’t know. The car is in contact with the environment picking up information about restaurants, bars and entertainment that sink into the car and are delivered to the co-pilot who ge ts this information on the personal display.

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The co-pilot can then ask for more information on events etc buy tickets on-line it so all about convenience from your car. The co-pilot then swipes this information to the driver interface, the navigation then directs the car to the destination.
The user interface will be a much more integral part of the car’s interior and the challenge was to express this technology in a more conventional seamless way.

Here the driver has two screens in front of him or her that have a three-dimensional effect so that we can display information in the order of importance – the closer it gets it becomes more relevant to the driving information. Then the head up display projects information in a distance.

The head-up display uses augmented reality so that you look into the windscreen you see the city, but you see an arrow pointing into the street that you want to go into.

Look for the passenger display and augmented reality to be optional on the new 7 Series and ultimately make it to the next generation 5 Series in the coming years.