BMW Vision M NEXT
Here’s a quick look at the BMW Vision M NEXT, which gives us a glimpse of what the future might hold. Firstly, it’s a beautiful looking car with a very unique interior that makes it feel like you’re piloting a spaceship. This is very close to how I had imagined a car of the future when I was a kid.
The interior of the BMW Vision M NEXT focuses around the BOOST Pod, which features a curved glass display, head-up display (HUD) and an Augmented Reality (AR) windscreen.
BOOST UI
The monochromatic carbon fibre-looking interface is interesting, and appears to be used for secondary content like graphs, patterns or heart rate monitor. Whereas the bright yellow UI presents the primary content and stands out nicely against the dark interior. The shapes and angles used definitely make the UI feel more futuristic or space like, and something you would expect to see aboard the Guardians of the Galaxy ship (Guardians of the Galaxy, Avengers: Infinity War).
AR windscreen
Augmented Reality in cars is not a new concept but the BMW Vision M NEXT seems to have done it well (see GM Elmiraj article). I like the use of strong iconography to compliment the driving experience, not only does it free the windscreen of clutter but it is universally recognisable and doesn’t require translation across different markets. I also like how they’ve offset some shapes at three different heights, which subtly gives the driver extra spacial data. They’ve done a great job of illustrating how this works in the video below. The timing and animations work intuitively.
