BMW Showcases Next-Gen iDrive System Set For Late 2025

Meet the next-gen iDrive. Every new BMW presented at the end of this year will get it. BMW calls it a “holistic system with modern styling.” But it’s much more than just a woolly description.

The latest iDrive concept includes something the Germans call ‘BMW Panoramic Vision’. This is essentially a head-up display that projects its information onto a thin black strip at the bottom of the windscreen between the A-pillars. The information is not only visible to the driver but to all passengers. This replaces the digital or non-digital instrument cluster behind the steering wheel. It displays information such as speed, battery status, and climate control. The display in the middle and directly in front of the front passenger is adjustable.

It doesn’t stop at a head-up display. The latest iDrive also includes what the manufacturer calls the ‘BMW 3D Head-Up Display’. This is a head-up display with a 3D effect that appears right in front of the driver’s nose. Here you will find information about the route to be driven, but also about the car’s autonomous driving mode, for example. This part of the new iDrive system is optional, but Panoramic Drive will soon be standard.

In addition, the new iDrive includes a traditional screen in the centre console. It has new menu structures and can be operated by touch, among other things. According to BMW, certain content – think of widgets –  can easily be swiped to the Panoramic Vision Head-up display at the bottom of the windshield. Nice and easy.

New Steering Wheel

Also new is the steering wheel. It is littered with touch-sensitive buttons that provide haptic feedback. Functions related to driving and safety systems are operated with buttons on the left side of the steering wheel. The audio system can be operated using buttons on the right side of the steering wheel. On the steering column, you will find stalks with which you can operate the lights and windshield wipers, among other things.

The latest iDrive system runs on an operating system called BMW Operating System X. By saying “Hey BMW” you should be able to talk to the digital assistant called BMW Intelligent Personal Assistant, although you can also press a button with a microphone on the steering wheel.

As mentioned, BMW Panoramic iDrive will come as standard in all new BMWs that will see the light of day from 2025 onwards. The manufacturer specifically mentions the models of the Neue Klasse, and that is no coincidence. In the Vision Neue Klasse—the preview of the first electric sedan of that model family – BMW already showed a conceptual version of the new iDrive system.

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