BMW's Vision Of The Roadster Future

by Edward Niedermeyer

Published: February 10th, 2011

Between Nissan’s Esflow concept and this BMW Vision ConnectedDrive concept, it’s becoming pretty clear that “clean fun” is the theme of the forthcoming Geneva Auto Show. But BMW isn’t just signaling the production look of its EfficientDynamics sportscar… the Vision ConnectedDrive also demonstrates BMW’s dedication to managing the coming information overload created by ever more technologically-dependent automobiles. Autocar reports:

BMW knows that the day is rapidly approaching when on-board sensors will deliver so much data to the driver that innovative ways are needed to present the information so it can be absorbed and acted upon quickly.

Intended to replace the conventional instrument cluster, the next-gen HUD will display info like road speed and sat-nav directions in three-dimensions.

This tech allows different information layers to be superimposed on top of one another, in turn allowing the driver to display the required data in the foreground, while ghosting less significant info into the background.

By providing this ‘optical depth of field’, BMW reckons it can provide the driver with multiple additional information sources without having to redesign a car’s fascia to take an additional display screen.

Just another step towards the day when Graphical User Interfaces become as important to cars as styling and performance.

[UPDATE: Welcome Instapundit readers!]

#Design #FutureVehicles #Gizmology

Edward Niedermeyer

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MidLifeCelica on Feb 11, 2011

By a fluke of the scroll wheel, the last line on my screen was the heading above the picture. When I scrolled again, I actually said 'GAAAAAAHHHHH'. Out loud. At work. This exclamation was repeated when my fellow cubicle dwellers popped up to see what was wrong. Hey BMW - Batman called, he wants his daily driver back!

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Mike Powers on Feb 13, 2011

I'm kind of happy to see that BMW wants to move the 1952 concept of the auto/driver information interface. Too bad this is only a concept. Of course, given the comments here, I'm pretty sure that there's some drivers who think the only instrumentation should be a fuel gage and a speedometer. All shifting should be done by ear (and of course the automatic transmission doesn't exist anymore.)

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