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Concept image of Panoramic iDrive.
Credit: BMW
BMW is waving goodbye to tactile controls with its new Panoramic iDrive system, which features a head-up display, AI assistant, and haptic controls. The automaker unveiled its screen-filled setup this week at CES 2025, noting that the configuration would debut with the Neue Klasse X electric SUV later this year.
With its sweeping 3D graphics, the head-up display, or HUD, is Panoramic iDrive’s most eye-catching component. BMW says the HUD projects navigation and dashboard information within the driver’s line of sight without needing a special windshield coating—which means drivers won’t have another thing to pay for when a rock inevitably cracks the glass. Drivers can allegedly customize how information is organized within the HUD, just like they can customize their ambient light colors, center infotainment console, and sound signals. (For the last of these, drivers have 43 different options.) A built-in, large language model-powered “intelligent personal assistant” lets drivers speak naturally with their cars.
BMW’s two-toned haptic steering wheel rounds out Panoramic iDrive’s futuristic feel. But the decision to ditch real buttons is a surprising one, given a realization among other automakers that drivers prefer controls they can find by feel. A year ago, Volkswagen head of design Andreas Mindt said the company was turning back to “physical switches and dials for important functions” while leaving touch screens to infotainment and navigation. (It’s the twenty-first century, and a car just doesn’t feel new if there isn’t a single touch screen to be found.) The change would help drivers safely reach for climate, light, defroster, and other essential controls without diverting their gaze from the road ahead.
But BMW appears to have missed the memo—or its designers simply believe haptic controls are a happy medium. There are at least 16 haptic controls incorporated into the brand’s new steering wheel, all of which appear to be completely flat. Climate control and lights (interior and exterior) are handled via the slanted center touch screen, which BMW has equipped with its new Operating System X. Though the brand says it developed the OS in-house to bring itself “one step closer to digital and technological independence,” third-party integrations will continue to be available through osX.
The forthcoming Neue Klasse X will be BMW’s first production vehicle to come with Panoramic iDrive. The automaker expects to begin assembly this year, which means deliveries will likely kick off in 2026.