All-new BMW Panoramic iDrive: cutting-edge displays coming to all future BMWs

• New steering wheel, infotainment and driver display system
• Traditional driver’s screen replaced by head-up display
• Coming to all new BMW models from the end of 2025

This is the new BMW Panoramic iDrive system and it represents a big change for the brand’s in-car infotainment. While it may look like the stuff of concept-car fantasy, the new infotainment will find its way into all new production BMWs by the end of this year –  widescreen head-up display and all.

Shown off in Las Vegas at the 2025 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), we had a chance to get up close and personal with the different components of BMW Panoramic iDrive, including the new ‘Panoramic Vision’ head-up display, central touchscreen and steering wheel. It’s BMW’s first step towards a new era of ‘software-defined vehicles’ – cars with a focus on tech, rather than the engine under the bonnet.

Panoramic iDrive is coming to all future BMWs, starting with the first ‘Neue Klasse’ models arriving later in 2025. That’s likely to include the next BMW 3 Series, giving it the tech to compete with the Audi Virtual Cockpit and Mercedes MBUX systems found in rivals.

What’s so special about BMW Panoramic iDrive?

That all sounds like a lot of fuss about a new infotainment system, so what’s the big deal? Well, the first big change is the new ‘Panoramic Vision’ head-up display, which replaces the traditional driver’s display or gauge cluster.

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All of your driving information, such as speed, range and mileage, is projected onto a black band along the base of the windscreen. Unlike the head-up displays found in most other cars, the projection spans the full width of the windscreen and is visible to all passengers, not just the driver. It can be customised to show different information for the driver and passenger, while the graphics appear to float in 3D space.

It’s a bit different to a traditional driver’s display as the information sits above the steering wheel, rather than behind it – a bit like Peugeot’s i-Cockpit layout. BMW will offer another optional 3D head-up display alongside the Panoramic Vision system, which will place even more information directly into the driver’s line of sight. This will show navigation graphics in the centre of the windscreen and will work in tandem with the lower Panoramic Vision display.

BMW hasn’t forgotten about the central touchscreen display, though. It’s been given a major overhaul and will run the brand’s new ‘Operating System X’. Like the current BMW Operating System 9, it’s based on Google’s Android software – the same basic system that runs many smartphones – which BMW claims will help with future upgradability. Operating System X will allow the touchscreen and head-up displays to work in unison, also connecting to the new steering wheel.

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The new steering wheel features some clever haptic control buttons, which illuminate only when the function is needed. For example, if you’re receiving an incoming call, a button will illuminate allowing you to answer. The steering wheel buttons don’t move physically, but vibrate and have a raised outline so they can be found without taking your eyes off the road.

Are there any physical controls?

BMW hasn’t done a Tesla and ditched physical controls entirely. Instead, the new iDrive layout uses “an optimal combination of analogue and digital controls through the use of switches, buttons, touch and voice control”. For example, there are still traditional stalks to control the indicators and windscreen wipers, while other haptic switches are used for the exterior mirrors, volume control and the gear selector.

When will Panoramic iDrive be available?

All we know so far is that Panoramic iDrive will make its debut towards the end of 2025. It will be rolled out in every new BMW model launched from that point onwards – both electric and combustion-powered – in line with its Neue Klasse strategy. The first model is expected to be the new BMW iX3 replacement, based on the Neue Klasse X concept shown off in 2024, followed by an all-new BMW 3 Series in 2026.

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