BMW’s New iDrive System Ditches the Knob for More Screens

BMW’s iDrive infotainment system is undergoing a radical change. This week, the automaker rolled out a “close-to-production” version of its backbone software infrastructure at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.

The new system will ditch the longstanding central rotary knob on the console in favor of more touchscreen interfacing, with the centerpiece being a new narrow, wide, screen spanning pillar-to-pillar ahead of both driver and passenger called “BMW Panoramic Vision.” (Similar to the screen we now find on the 2025 Lincoln Navigator.)

The new system will debut in the first series-produced Neue Klasse model, which arrives later this year. It’ll then find its way to the rest of BMW’s lineup starting at the end of 2025.

BMW says that the system consists of four key elements: 1) The panoramic screen, 2) a new and optional 3D head-up display, 3) a central display screen, and 4) a multifunction steering wheel.

The panoramic screen will present vital driving information into the driver’s line of sight just above the steering wheel. From the images, we can see key data points such as battery charge, range, speed, and odometer readings, but expect things like the trip computer, vehicle status information, and more here as well. Meanwhile, the central and right-hand sides of the screen (thinking of this as three separate zones seems to make sense based on BMW’s explanation) are for customizable data.

Above that screen will be an optional 3D head-up display that will be able to show things like navigation and automated driving information. This info will be directly in the driver’s field of vision as well, though like most head-up displays today, we don’t expect this to dominate the front windscreen.

Meanwhile, the central display will host familiar but updated menu items for things like the climate controls and the media. The screen sits almost floating atop the low, wide dash, similar to how Tesla does its central tablet. Certain content from this screen can be tossed up to the BMW Panoramic Vision screen with a simple swipe of the finger.

Because this is still a car, the steering wheel still matters. BMW will debut a new multi-function wheel that looks quite futuristic—the outer left and ride sides almost look like old-school phones clamped to the wheel. Relevant controls—and we’ll have to wait and see what the logic is behind what’s relevant at what time—will be illuminated on the go. BMW calls them “buttons,” but then notes that they provide “active haptic feedback,” which certainly makes us think that these are little touch panels like Volkswagen‘s current steering wheel setup. (Which, by the way, that company is ditching in favor of bringing back real buttons.)

“The buttons have a well-judged, relief-like surface, which makes them extremely easy to locate and means the driver can press them without needing to divert their gaze away from the road,” says BMW. We’ll be the judge of that; we still prefer buttons here over little haptic pads that we can brush against and accidentally adjust something we didn’t mean to.

Still, these tech and design decisions weren’t made out of thin air. BMW says that it used data-driven learnings from a global fleet of more than 22 million vehicles to analyze how owners were interacting with the existing iDrive system. That, in combination with multiple usability studies involving more than 3000 customers, has guided the new system.

Again, we can’t help but be skeptical about tech advances like this because we tend to lean more toward an analog approach in nearly every part of a new car—but to be a luxury automaker in today’s world means that you have to be on the bleeding-edge of tech integration. Given that reality, the new system sure seems like a smart step in the direction that BMW clearly wants to go.