New BMW windshield technology tackles driver distraction

MUNICH — When it comes to in-car digital displays, BMW thinks more isn't necessarily better.

While automakers carpet vehicle dashboards with jumbo displays, the German luxury automaker is steering toward a less-distracting digital experience in its future electric vehicles.

"Your car is your last private space," said Stephan Durach, BMW Group senior vice president for connected company development. "Sitting in front of a wall of screens is not a nice [customer experience]."

So BMW is ditching its dashboard-riding slabs of curved glass for a less-intrusive driver experience in its Neue Klasse platform EVs that arrive mid-decade.

"We looked at the [Mercedes] Hyperscreen, we looked at our own solutions," BMW Group Chief Technology Officer Frank Weber told Automotive News ahead of this month's Munich auto show. "We saw the limitation of bigger and bigger displays."

Weber said the new concept merges physical and digital experiences.

While BMW's redefined user experience doesn't reduce the number of screens in the vehicle, it sandboxes content to individual displays to minimize driver distraction. Interaction is handled via steering wheel control and voice commands.

"We want to reduce the redundancy," Vice President of User Experience Joern Freyer said. "We don't want to have information in all places in parallel. We want to focus the driver."

Current head-up displays project a small field of view. Expanding the field of view can create a more immersive experience and deliver critical driving information in the driver's natural line of sight, allowing them to keep their eyes on the road.

BMW's new design showcases a head-up display technology that transforms the windshield into a secondary display.

The Bosch-supplied BMW Panoramic Vision display is tucked far back on the dashboard and just below the windshield. It projects the contents from its three screens across the lower section of the windscreen. The ultra-wide display sits in the driver's line of sight but is low enough so as not to obstruct the view of the road.

Freyer said the Panoramic Vision display uses high-contrast "matrix backlight" technology.

"It's several times stronger than any display that is normally used in a car," he said.

The display delivers driving information, navigation prompts and incoming notifications such as phone calls.

In pillar-to-pillar screen concepts, there's so much real estate that automakers feel compelled to fill it with content, Durach said.

"We are trying to reduce the information ... to really meaningful things and stay as focused as possible," he said. As a result, vehicle speed is displayed as a number, with none of the graphics and animations that typically clutters the instrument cluster.

"We want to [emphasize] eyes on the road, hands on the wheel," Freyer said. "That's why we want to bring the most important information directly into the driver's view.""

BMW pairs the Panoramic Vision with a parallelogram-shaped touchscreen within reach of the driver and front passenger. The centrally located OLED display is oriented to view infotainment, gaming and navigation.

A third screen — an optional 3D head-up display activated above the steering wheel — is limited to navigation and assisted driving information.

BMW engineers first batted around the idea of an advanced head-up display like Panoramic Vision nearly a decade ago. Development of the windshield-based display concept for the Neue Klasse platform officially began in 2019.

Initially, there was skepticism and technical challenges. The display's position — typically where the air vent sits — required relocating HVAC and other components.

"We had to understand how to do the car's architecture around this concept," Durach said.

While the Panoramic Vision concept debuts in BMW's next-generation Neue Klasse electric vehicles, Durach said, "you will see it in every car regardless of powertrain."

BMW is betting its minimalist concept will be the new normal.

CEO Oliver Zipse said earlier this year he is "absolutely convinced" that center console-based screens that require drivers to look away from the road will soon be history.

"In 10 years, that is gone," Zipse said this year at CES 2023. "Probably, the regulator will not allow it."