BMW turns 100 and reveals motoring fantasy with Vision Next
BMW celebrated its 100th birthday today with an advanced autonomous car which reveals the new direction the great German automaker is headed in. Aptly revealed at the company’s first ever factory at Munich the Vision Next 100 has been designed not for the roads of today, but those under autonomous and zero-emissions.
BMW chairman, Harald Kruger addressed the media. “Autonomous driving is no longer a question of ‘if’ but ‘when’, but the driver will remain firmly in focus, with constant connectivity, digital intelligence and state-of-the-art technology available for support”.
BMW’s sleek sedan with four door practicality harks back to many of its earlier designs while other elements of its design bear a strong resemblance to the BMW i8’s low and sharp nose. The concept car has no B-pillars but the trademark kidney grille, signature Hofmeister kick and L-shaped tail lights are retained. Interestingly the four-ringed headlights – a design staple considered as central to the brand as the kidney grille – is not present in the Vision Next 100.
Roughly the length of a 5 Series but significantly lower, the Vision’s bodywork is composed of carbonfibre and plastic. Surfacing techniques that cover the wheels gives the Vision Next 100 a low drag of 0.18 which will play an important role once BMW settles on the drivetrain. BMW still wants its motto of Sheer Driving Pleasure to apply here.
Two modes will determine the driver’s involvement; Boost mode still asks the driver to operate controls many of us would recognise while an Ease mode, indicated by different lighting inside and out, puts the car into full autonomous mode and adjusts the steering and seating position for a relaxed oasis.
BMW design boss, Adrian von Hooydonk, says the starting point for the new BMW was the interior. “Our objective was to develop a scenario that people would engage with. Technology is going to make significant advances, opening up fantastic new possibilities that will allow us to offer the driver even more assistance for an even more intensive driving experience.”
Goal achieved, in a cabin hewn from sustainable materials like recyclable mono-material BMW plans to get rid of the high definition display and focus on developing heads-up technology that could fill the entire windscreen with information. Doors will open automatically once the driver approaches and the car will know the driver too, feeding him information on a personal level.
“The digital world is strongly linked to displays; the next step will be organic LEDs – displays that can freely change shape. At some point, however, there will be no more displays at all. Instead, the entire windscreen will act as a giant display,” says von Hooydonk.
For now there is no word whether BMW will complete production on the Vision Next 100 partly because some of the technology does not yet exist in mainstream application. What it does achieve is plot the course for the future and stir excitement not only around BMW’s future but that of the car.
