Concept forecasts BMW of the future
BMW is celebrating its 100th anniversary with the wildly futuristic Vision Next 100 concept.
In the grand scheme of things, the Vision Next 100 is a BMW. You can tell as much from the so- called kidney grille, but that’s where the similarities end between the concept and the BMWs we’re used to seeing today. Calling the Vision Next 100 “cutting edge” is an understatement.
As with anything remotely pertinent to the future of driving, the BMW Vision Next 100 is mostly autonomous. It features two driving modes: Ease and Boost. Ease takes care of driving inputs, but select Boost mode and the Vision Next 100 lets the driver take full control.
Of course, autonomous driving barely scratches the surface of what the Vision Next 100 has to offer. The windshield is an augmentedreality display, effectively replacing every single dashboard screen and display.
The Vision Next 100 also features something BMW calls Alive Geometry. Put simply, there are 800 triangles embedded in the dashboard and certain exterior panels. These triangles are able to move as one and give signals to the driver, with BMW calling it “preconscious communication, where an intuitive signal predicts an imminent real-time event.”
Perhaps the most innovative, if not strange, piece of technology in is something called Companion. It’s a gemstone embedded in the dashboard that takes a bit of a Big Brother approach to learning the driver’s style. Companion tailors the vehicle’s settings to suit the driver’s needs and eventually will be able to “perform routine tasks” and “offer advice” — though that advice is likely pertinent to driving and how to approach objects on the road ahead, not what you should wear to dinner.
Much of the Vision Next 100 concept is about dreaming big, but some ideas aren’t as crazy as they may seem. There’s very little chance of BMW’s Alive Geometry or Companion appearing in the next-generation 3 Series, but an autonomous BMW with much of the windshield acting as an augmented- reality display might be closer than we think.