At first glance, BMW’s showing at this year’s CES will seem rather familiar. And it actually is. As the company has brought back the i8 Spyder concept, the topless version of the i8 concept it’s been developing since the car maker first unveiled it back in 2014. What’s different this time around is that BMW has overhauled the interiors of the i8 Spyder and fitted it with what the company calls its I Vision Future Interaction, its concept for a fully networked cockpit and future interface and interaction.
The most obvious new component of BMW’s I Vision Future Interaction concept is the 21-inch ultra-wide panoramic OLED display that sits across the top of the dash and basically replaces all of the dashboard controls and is meant to virtually control all of the car’s functions. The panoramic display is controlled primarily via a new gesture control system called AirTouch which senses “air gestures” using sensors on three parts of the dash. AirTouch lets the driver or passenger point at the display from afar and “push” or “pull” to select, among other gestures. It may also be controlled via buttons integrated into the car’s steering wheel as well as touch pads found under the center armrest and the side of the car on the passenger side.
The I Vision Future Interaction also features a heads-up display on the windshield as well as a three-dimensional dual-layered display which replaces the instrument cluster. All of the displays present different information that’s relevant to the specific driving scenario or situation. The i8 Spyder concept also features BMW’s latest autonomous driving technology with three drive modes: Pure Drive, Assist, and Auto Mode, which lets you drive completely manually, drive with active assistance systems, and drive with highly automated operation.
Open Mobility Cloud
BMW also showed off its Open Mobility Cloud technology which is the company’s Internet of Things concept which connects networked systems such as BMW’s i3, one’s Smart Home, and mobile devices like a smartphone or smart watch. One of the main components of its Open Mobility Cloud is what the company calls the Mobility Mirror which is both a mirror and display medium, which the company showed off at a CES demo.
The Mobility Mirror shows one’s important information for the day including one’s personal calendar, mobility options, home energy status, car charge status (the BMW i3 for the demo), and even weather forecast. The Mobility Mirror also acts as a key fob holder and can detect when the owner picks up the key fob. It then automatically and autonomously opens the garage door, drives the car out into position on the road, and activates climate control to ready the car’s interiors for the driver.
Once the driver has reached his/her destination, the BMW i3 can be parked autonomously using BMW’s Gesture Control Parking technology which enables the car to drive into and out of a parking space fully automatically. The driver can then monitor the car using Remote 3D View which uses the cameras around the car to take images of the surrounding area and stream them to the driver’s smartphone. Bumper Detect can also automatically notify the driver whenever the parked car is bumped or being tampered with while parked.
The whole process can also be reversed with the driver signaling the car through his smartphone or smart watch to drive itself out of the parking space, driving back to the front of the Smart Home, replacing the key fob on the Mobility Mirror, and the car will park itself back into the garage, and query the driver through the Magic Mirror about which way the Smart Home should charge the car.
That’s just a small glimpse of the range of technologies and systems BMW is developing not just for the car of the future but the many ways we may interact with our cars in the future and how they connect with the rest of our life and devices.
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