The Self-Driving BMW Vision Next 100 Makes The i8 Look Like Old Hat

For BMW, today is a very special day. 7 March 2016 marks the company’s 100th anniversary, and this stupidly futuristic concept has been cooked up by the Bavarians to celebrate the occasion.

It ticks all the usual concept car boxes - a striking body, a crazy interior, and some outrageous doors. Well, ‘doors’ are an appropriate description for the dihedral-opening devices at the front, but at the rear you get something even more special: a massive clamshell piece which lifts with the front doors to expose the majority of the futuristic interior.

The focus here, though, is autonomous tech. The Vision has something called ‘Alive Geometry’ to manage the drive interactions, formed of ‘Boost’ and ‘Ease’ modes. In Boost, the car does all it can to help out the driver, including driving line (like Forza IRL…), steering point and speed suggestions on the head-up display.

Ease mode on the other hand takes over the driving duties entirely. It retracts the steering wheel and centre console, turns the headrests to the side and allows the driver and front seat passenger to face each other.

So, the idea of this car is to address the inevitability of autonomous cars, while seeing where BMW’s focus on driving pleasure might fit in. It certainly seems like an interesting take on the idea, but how relevant it’ll end up being depends upon whether or not the powers that be eventually ban DIY driving…

If it hasn’t quite satisfied your appetite for futuristic stuff, be patient: Vision concepts from fellow BMW Group brands Rolls-Royce, Mini and BMW Motorrad are on the way.