BMW Introduces New iDrive Infotainment At CES

BMW has revealed its updated Panoramic iDrive system at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2025, with the system slated to land in production vehicles by the end of this year. The goal is to make this standard equipment for all models moving forward, allowing the business to ditch the venerable iDrive knob so that the company can implement more touch controls.

The system is supposed to accompany the “ Neue Klasse” models BMW said would solidify the industry’s current focus on tech-forward vehicles promoting environmentalism, minimalism, and electrification. But it looks like the brand is just trying to mimic what we’ve already seen from Tesla and the gaggle of brands that have been copying its style.

Previews of the new UX show that BMW has abandoned situating instruments directly in front of the driver so that the “BMW Panoramic Vision” can display a streamlined version across the top of the entire dashboard via one long digital display. The company said this allowed for important information to be “projected directly into the driver’s line of sight.”

Additionally, the automaker said it planned to offer an optional “3D Head-up Display” that could likewise place navigation and automated driving information directly in the driver’s field of vision. For those unwilling to shell out the extra money, those details will be reserved for display on the new central touch display that controls all of the vehicle’s major functions.

The new tablet is in the shape of a parallelogram, rather than the typical rectangle, for some added style and comes with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. BMW very clearly wants users to lean on the integrated applications. However, abandoning smartphone mirroring (which is often more intuitive than manufacturer UXs) would have likely been foolish.

“High tech meets highly intuitive operation – a quarter of a century of pioneering work and technological leadership in operating concepts has been channelled into the new BMW Panoramic iDrive,” stated Frank Weber, member of the Board of Management of BMW AG, responsible for Development. “The foundations are provided by the new BMW Operating System X. With this advance, we are giving one of the world’s best and most comprehensive infotainment systems even greater capability and once again setting the industry benchmark in multimodal interaction. Starting with the first series-produced Neue Klasse model at the end of this year, the new BMW Panoramic iDrive will form an integral part of all future BMW models.”

That’s a lot of text to explain that BMW plans on removing more physical buttons to make space for additional touch controls. However, BMW has confirmed that it wanted to retain physical switch gear for the windshield wipers, turn signal indicators, headlamps, gear selector, volume knob, mirror adjusters and defroster.

Unfortunately, this turned out to be a bit of a ruse. BMW identifies them as “haptic switches” suggesting that they’ll simply mimic physical controls without actually being mechanical in nature. They likewise look to be relegated entirely to the new steering wheel design. If that’s not to your liking, and you don’t mind your vehicle listening to your conversations, voice controls are supposedly improved.

While large interior touch screens have become synonymous with modern luxury vehicles, they’ve actually grown relatively polarizing among consumers. Western markets have started to become skeptical of the technology. Surveys have suggested that drivers inside North America feel like the industry is ignoring the fundamentals to make vehicles function more like smartphones. There have likewise been numerous studies suggesting that all this new technology is effectively making modern cars less intuitive, certainly lowering user satisfaction and potentially contributing to the uptick in serious accidents.

However, interior screens have become the de facto luxury standard in China and have only gotten more popular there. Performance and ruggedness take a back seat as drivers tend to prioritize cushy seating and maximizing the available tech. That’s not to suggest Chinese and American drivers don’t appreciate many of the same things. But it’s abundantly clear that the Chinese are much more prone to welcoming invasive tech or massive screens taking over the entire dashboard and automakers — particularly the German marquees — are obviously trying to cater to that.

BMW managed to be one of the top ten best-selling brands in China in 2023 with deliveries nearly matching volumes on the European market. German brands (particularly BMW and Volkswagen Group) are doing big business in China right now and have a vested interest in catering to its tastes. However, we’ve also seen this come at the expense of Western sales.

A quick search on why will result in sloppy, AI-driven answers about how the brands failed to electrify quickly enough. But these were also the legacy brands fielding some of the first all-electric vehicles in Europe and we know EV sales have plateaued in recent years. The more likely reason for declining sales is that these companies have failed to manufacture the kind of vehicles Westerns want and can realistically afford during a period of economic duress. Quality control also seems to have broadly declined, with German brands starting to lose ground in China. VW, BMW, Porsche, and Mercedes-Benz all posted noteworthy sales slumps in China for the third quarter of 2024.

Perhaps more glitzy technology will be the solution. The manufacturer says that the new BMW Operating System X will be applicable to more over-the-air updates and even new features that can be ordered to the vehicle remotely. But this is something consumers have likewise been critical of after news broke that BMW planned on offering subscriptions to access hardware that was already equipped to vehicles.

While the new interior design and user interface checks all the boxes of modern automotive design, and likewise lowers production costs by being “minimalist,” these aren’t changes that have seen universal acceptance on Western markets. BMW is trying things that some drivers claim to love and others confess to loathing. It’ll be interesting to see how the updated iDrive UX is received as it enters production later this year and eventually becomes the standard equipment for the German automaker.

[Images: BMW]

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Source: The Truth About Cars