BMW was definitely one of the most versatile automakers at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, showing off several technologies that are sure to make our lives easier in the near future.
From an “eye-candy” perspective, the i Vision Future Interaction was probably what attracted most people’s attention, despite the fact that its huge 21″ panorama display seemed like it would eventually obstruct some of the visibility when behind the wheel. Of course, cars will fundamentally change once we won’t need to be the ones paying attention to the road, as our vehicles will be doing all of that themselves.
Naturally, the “autonomous roads” of the future will be quite biker friendly as well, which is why BMW came up with the head-up display helmet – preventing the rider from having to look down at the instrument cluster for whatever reason.
This particular tech is very interesting because the entire unit has its own integrated mini-computer and loudspeakers, and can be controlled from the left-hand handlebar through the BMW Motorrad multi-controller.
Other goodies featured in BMW’s impressive exhibition include the Internet of Things, the Open Mobility Cloud (which connects networked systems like your car and your Smart Home to your smart phone/watch), the Mobility Mirror, the Gesture Control Parking system (really cool way to park your car), Remote 3D View and Bumper Detect, which identifies when your parked car has been bumped and sends you a text message – that will probably start a whole new trend with people who dread receiving messages from their own car because it can only be bad news.
Just to return to the motorcycle theme for a bit, we couldn’t leave out the laser light in the K1600 GTL concept, which has a main beam with a range of 600 meters (1,968 feet), and that can be tremendously helpful when riding at night or in generally low lit conditions.
BMW are clearly separating themselves from most of the field, within their own industry. While they’ll certainly not fall behind any of their rivals in terms of autonomous tech, they’re actually coming up with all of these high tech solutions for the future at a rate which is proving to be very hard to match.
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