BMW Neue Klasse – The BMW Panoramic iDrive Explained | Inside Neue Klasse.
There’s a lot of brain power going into that to make it still feel as easy and accessible as you actually want it. Inside Noia Class, a video series with people at BMW shaping the future. Hello and welcome back. It is time for another episode of Inside Nea Class, which is your front row seat to the future of driving. Now, I am absolutely loving this series because we are unlocking groundbreaking innovations with the greatest minds. Those minds that have designed and built these incredible BMWs. And whilst we’re on this journey, we’re also challenging ourselves and challenging you with a game or two. So, we’re going to have some fun along the way. So, strap yourself in, get ready to get curious, get inspired. Let’s go. [Music] So, what are we going to be talking about today? Well, we are exploring BMW’s panoramic iDrive. Did you just say you’re a fan of BMW and you don’t know what the panoramic iDrive is? Well, do not worry because we have an expert in the house with us to tell us exactly what this brand new interface and operating system can do for your drive. And the best part about it all is that it basically allows you to have freedom while driving, but also control. Slightly opposite adjectives there, but exactly what you need to enjoy the most out of your car. So, without further ado, let’s welcome BMW’s UI design lead that has been right at the heart of the panoramic iDrive since inception, David Lyster. Thank you for joining us. Thank you very much. Hi, Nikki. How are you? I’m very good. How are you? We are very excited because you’ve kind of been at the the core the forefront of revolutionizing the way we experience our BMW. Well, before we get into the nitty-gritty of what the panoramic iDrive actually is, I would like to get to know you a bit better first. So, I have a question for you. Is there anything that you always take in the car with you on a journey or something that you always have with you? Sure. So, my phone’s always with me. Actually, like the sound’s blasting already in my headphones. I get in and seamlessly connecting and going on with my music. So that’s actually a huge part of making it feel seamless and connecting myself with my car. Right. It’s so true. And actually I think you get really used to it. Like I am very used to now. Yeah. I jump into my car, it adapts to, you know, how I want the environment to be and off you go. But also sometimes I’m test driving other cars that’s not set up to my preferences and you forget the faf how long it takes, you know, to adjust your seat, to adjust the music, to adjust your, I don’t know, internal climate control, and it’s like a good couple of minutes every time. We start to take all of this for granted, don’t we? Yeah. Well, actually, a huge part of making an experience feel light as well is like exactly those moments. So, you kind of have to go through some of those setups, right? But they can feel tedious or they can feel very easily and natural, right? Yeah. Okay. If you could choose any superpower, unfortunately, not just for yourself, we can’t do flying and invisibility here. A superpower for a car of the future, what would it be? That would be really nice to never run out of battery, right? So, that would be great. the dream just drive endlessly forever more. We’re not there yet unfortunately, but we make as well like everything in that sense very easily connected and fast charging is obviously a huge deal for us. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Um so when we talk about the panoramic iDrive, will you just remind us all what are the things that we’re actually referring to here? So it includes the panoramic vision having like the most crucial uh information displayed, right? in front of you. It includes the steering wheel with the controls for that and central display with everything for infotainment and your personal needs. And it has gone through, I mean, a huge transition, you know, from the beginning to where it is now. And if we look back at something like, you know, the BMW 2002, I mean, that had a steering wheel, an indicator, a radio. It didn’t have the panoramic drive. Why is it so important to have it now? Things were so much simpler then. It was it was simple and uh that’s like the uh main part of this um the whole world and actually our customer needs and uh demands on functionality are not that simple anymore. We want to get you safely to your destination. You want to actually enable you to choose a destination. Something different than that. Rerouting that sort of sense. And I’m not even talking about like all of the entertainment uh products we we’re having now. While you’re charging, you can actually play a game on that, watch a favorite movie. You couldn’t do in the very classic 2002 back then. And yet still what we want to keep at the core is like having a very simplistic feel to that and your access to this feel as simple as it can get. I think we’re, you know, generally we’re quite simplistic creatures, aren’t we? we don’t really like change. So originally we sort of convinced ourselves we like simplicity but then actually once you get used to having access to this amazing technology and personalization um yeah you get used to that change and then you can’t live without it. So when you go through the whole design process I’m sure there is a long list of things that it would be nice to implement. How do you kind of prioritize what goes in and maybe what you don’t need to put in? We do have a lot of user data with our existing products. So, uh there’s a lot of uh information you can draw from, right? What’s important? Obviously, it’s a huge challenge to implement new features, something where you can’t compare it with. And this is where you actually have to try and test a lot of those things. So come up with an early mockup, drive it around yourself and get the experience. How does it actually feel in the car and make a decision from there? What’s the proudest thing about the panoramic iDrive that you’ve designed? It’s got to be this new uh panoramic vision display. The way it feels. How big is it? Yeah. Actually, I guess it depends on which color, doesn’t it? As big as it gets which model. Yeah. I mean it is like mind I feel like it’s like that big. Maybe a small exaggeration but it is mind-blowing. You know again like a few years ago if you said you were going to design that everyone would have said it’s not possible. Yeah we actually got a lot of questions about it. Is this going to be the real next uh product you’re putting out and said yeah we have to uh had to had to a lot of convincing about that this is this is going to be the next night classic. It’s for real. So it it does have this huge visual impact but um not for the sake of it. It it does this purposefully and meaningfully right where you as a driver can actually see the most important information there. No it is uh very beautiful indeed. Personalization I think is is a big thing isn’t it for for people. Um how has that changed over the last few years and what does the sort of future hold? What can we get excited about with the product? So with the panoramic iDrive, we offer a great deal of personalization we haven’t uh so far. So uh this is actually obviously for me as the designer very exciting because this is again like it’s not for everyone but I myself I like to match my socks uh to my belt or stuff like that. Right. And what color belt have you got on there? Cuz that’s a very brightly colored. It’s definitely the same orange I do. Very impressive. No, but again like um this we do know uh this is not for everybody, right? But so the challenge is on how to offer this uh amount of personalization without interfering. So uh that’s a guidance for pretty much everything we want to do. We make a good offer, right? But you have the choice of what to do with this. Yeah. Yeah. I love it. So you basically you’ve got the option there because one thing for me I love doing and I think it depends on the time of day and the mood you’re in and the style of driving is changing the ambient lighting to reflect the way you’re feeling. Um I don’t always do it but again it’s just really nice to have that option when I want to. Exactly. Yeah. And doing so without distracting your driving style. That’s that’s a super high focus for us. It’s also something that keeps my children very busy. They like tampering with all the different settings. What do you think makes panoramic iDrive a completely standout product compared to what other EVs, electric cars are offering at the moment? Mhm. I want to go back to like where we started actually the initial design ideas for this, right? Uh and this starts with what makes the brand very special. So what does make a BMW to this very special car that it is? It’s still firstly about the driving experience. So this is where even like the shape of the display next to you draws to it leans towards you as a driver and from there we develop all of the shapes and forms and details. So we have a very focused uh uh driver axis in front of you like the gauge cluster right uh in the middle uh in front of the driver. So this whole design inspiration is drawing from something that’s deeply rooted to the brand. Yeah. Right. And what about misconceptions? Do you think you know people maybe misinterpret what digital UX and cars is all about? What’s one of the major misconceptions you think? Oh yeah, that’s that it’s actually getting more complicated uh the more technology we’re implementing in our cars, right? So absolutely the advantages of having many more features is that we have a lot of a lot more to offer for our customers. But it is possible and this is what the panoramic iDrive is all about to do this in a very easy and simplistic kind of way. Right. So one example for this is that uh that customers or users of our existing products they feel familiar with the setup in the director’s display already. You haven’t changed uh the the information architecture in there. It feels familiar to you, right? And where to offer those new possibilities? That’s actually a lot of uh there’s a lot of uh brain power going into that to make it still feel as easy and simplistic as accessible as you actually want. You don’t want to hustle with technology, right? If you want to enjoy its advantages and don’t deal with uh complicated stuff. Yeah, totally. Well, I mean, it’s exactly the same again, you know, when we look at our mobile phones, you know, they’re incredibly complicated pieces of technology, but so easy to use because we’re just used to it. Um, and I guess you have the option to use all of that if you want it. It is available to use. Um, thank you so much. That was really, really fascinating. But now it is time for a game or two. Fancy it? Oh, yeah. Uh, I’ll give you a little clue. Are you any good at building things? H depends on what. Well, we’re not building a new interface, but it might involve bricks and a car. Oh, that’s it. That sounds lovely. Let’s go. This is our Lego challenge where we need in 10 minutes to build a car full of customization and personalization. Let’s go. Start with wheels. Start with wheels. Good idea. Oh, I’m going to take him cuz that’s a driver. This is hard. No, that’s not going to work. Maybe I’ll just copy you. Don’t look. Way more stressful than I expected. I I need instructions. Does anyone have the instructions? Nice one. But how do I attach it? What is that supposed to attach to? Oh, that could be the battery. It’s got a plus. Doesn’t really attach, but doesn’t matter. How did you get my wings on there? Secret highlight of my work week. [Music] The time is up. David, present to me. Well, that’s my BMW rocket. Oo, okay. Nice. So, obviously it is a BMW. It has to have a kidney grill. So, that’s basically like the first thing I tried to build. I hope it’s very dynamic looking, you know. It is. That’s that’s quite impressive. Aerodynamics was not a priority uh when building this car, nor was the color scheme. Uh we went for sort of a greeny, bluey, readyy vibe. sort of a nod to the M and a nod to the green. I would say that’s a solid two out of 10. I really love the plant. The plant is the defining feature. Personalization. There we go. That is giving oxygen back to the driver, which is a key thing. Yeah. I mean, let us know in the comments below if Shields’s dynamic flowering plant environmentally friendly chariot wins versus what’s what’s yours? Just a race car. No, it’s a rocket. A rocket versus the rocket wins. So, there we have it. That is a wrap on another episode of Inside Noacet. Massive thank you to David. Thank you for being a great sport as well. I think I will work on my Lego building. Needs a bit of improvement, doesn’t it? Let us know how you got on. And if you have any questions as well for David or for us, um, or just generally about the series, put them in the comments below. We do absolutely love to hear from from you. And spread the word as well. Get everyone watching and listening to this series because we have another very exciting episode coming up. We are probably getting under the skin of the future of the Neua Classes. So, make sure you stay tuned. I’ll see you then. [Music] [Music]
Join Nicki Shields as she discovers the BMW Panoramic iDrive with David Leister, BMW UI Design Lead.
Step into a digital experience designed around you. The BMW Panoramic iDrive redefines the interior with seamless interaction, intuitive connectivity, and a focus on personalisation. Built for evolving digital lifestyles and future mobility, it makes intuitive driving a truly individual experience – centred on clarity, connection, and your needs.
Inside Neue Klasse is a four-part video series offering exclusive insights from BMW experts into one of the most significant transformations in the history of BMW – from intelligent systems to visionary design.
🎯 Key moments
• 00:00 – Introduction
• 03:11 – What superpower would David’s dream car have?
• 03:46 – What makes the BMW Panoramic iDrive seamless?
• 12:07 – Challenge: Nicki vs. David
• 14:00 – Outro
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