The BMW Panoramic iDrive system transforms your windshield into a 3D head-up display that shows you critical navigation data right in your field of view, like lane info and your next turn. And you can totally customize the ultra wide display below it with the widgets of your choosing. It's coming to all BMW vehicles by the end of 2025.
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TechTranscript
00:00When it comes to cars, I'm a fan of buttons, but now that BMW is getting rid of all of them,
00:04I'm actually a fan of what they're doing instead. And it all comes down to the panoramic iDrive
00:09that's coming to all BMW models starting next year, and it's going to be in one car by the
00:13end of this year. And there's some key components that you need to know when it comes to this
00:16system. It all starts with a panoramic display that goes from the left side to the right side
00:22of the vehicle, and you can completely customize this with various apps and widgets to your
00:26preference. And all of the key information is right above the steering wheel, and it's a
00:30multi-function steering wheel, as you can see behind me. And those functions change based on
00:35what you're doing, and it actually pings you based on what's happening in the car. Probably
00:40the coolest thing about this whole thing is the heads-up display that it's 3D above the steering
00:45wheel. So in your real-world vision, when you're making turns, you'll actually see those turn
00:50signals and those indicators when you want to make them. You don't have to actually stare over
00:54to the central display if you don't want to, where the map is always there if you want it.
00:58But I'd rather have those directions right where I'm driving, and that's probably the best part
01:03about this whole thing. When it comes to the central display, that's actually customizable
01:07too. Now this is definitely larger than life that you'd see over my shoulder, but all of those
01:12buttons right there, there's a home button so you can always get back home, but all of the main
01:16functions are always at your fingertips. So you can scroll through them like up and down to go to
01:21different features, or within an app you can actually go left to right, so it's actually
01:24fairly intuitive. For me, the game-changing feature is the 3D heads-up display. A lot of people think
01:29that when it comes to technology in cars, it's really about distracting you, but what I'm seeing
01:33here is that BMW is flipping that on its head. Be sure to follow us at Tom's Guide across all of
01:38our social channels to see all the latest news from CES 2025, and I can't wait to test drive the
01:44real thing.