Forward-looking: BMW has unveiled its groundbreaking new Panoramic iDrive system, with the centerpiece being an eye-popping 3D heads-up display that spans the entire windshield. If you thought Tesla's minimalist interior was sleek, wait until you catch a glimpse of this.
Gone is the traditional gauge cluster in front of the steering wheel. Instead, everything is projected directly into the driver's line of sight through the windshield.
This includes speed, driving assistance information, stoplights, road signs, navigational directions, battery levels, and more. Everything is customizable, allowing the driver to display only the information they want. The navigation path even turns green when driver assistance is engaged, seamlessly blending technology with directions.
Frank Weber, BMW's chief technology officer, describes this setup as an augmented reality layer that keeps the driver connected to the road.
The company told The Verge that, as higher levels of autonomous driving become available, integrating navigation instructions with driver assistance data is a natural progression. They also mentioned that customer feedback played a crucial role in shaping many of the intelligent windshield display features.
The updates don't stop at the windshield. BMW has also redesigned the steering wheel, now featuring haptic buttons that illuminate based on different settings.
Assisting the windshield interface is a new rhombus-shaped center touchscreen, which users can directly interact with. It offers a highly customizable interface where users can prioritize their most-used apps (BMW refers to these as "pixels") for easy access. BMW is also considering an app store for additional features and customizations.
The software powering the system is BMW Operating System X, which the company claims is developed "100% in-house" and based on the Android Open Source Project.
Of course, no tech release in 2025 is complete without a touch of AI. The iDrive system uses it to learn drivers' habits and behaviors, automatically surfacing relevant apps and settings. For example, if a driver frequently takes a particular route home and engages sport mode, those settings will be proactively queued.
Large language models also make voice commands more natural and conversational, according to BMW. Rather than using specific keywords, drivers can simply say something like "find a charging station near the grocery store."
This ambitious new interior design will debut in BMW's upcoming X-Class electric SUV by late 2025, with other vehicles built on the new "Neue Klasse" platform following suit.
Such a dramatic change may polarize fans of a company with decades of legacy interiors featuring classic dials and gauges. It will also be interesting to see how BMW addresses safety considerations, which have become a point of scrutiny for EV companies moving to full touchscreen interfaces. In fact, Euro NCAP is introducing new guidelines in 2026 that will require important vehicle functions to use physical buttons for multiple controls to achieve a five-star safety rating.
BMW Panoramic iDrive turns the entire windshield into a display
