BMW VISION NEXT 100: The Vision Vehicle of tomorrow that would redefine mobility

What would 'Sheer Driving Pleasure' mean in vehicles that will probably be completely self-driven in the future?

To mark its centenary year in 2016, the BMW Group is looking ahead with a series of Vision Vehicles, to anticipate and respond to people’s future mobility needs.

Taking cues from innovations and designs of the past, and taking into account trends and technological developments of today, BMW designers have worked around something that has always been typical of the BMW brand: the desire to be uncompromising in its future focus on technologies and customer value. They take a look at a future scenario that people would engage with, and take cognizance of significant technological advances leading to new possibilities for an even more intense driving experience - an intuitive experience where the interactions between human, machine and surroundings become seamless.

Harald Krüger, Chairman of the Board of Management of BMW AG, and the BMW VISION NEXT 100

BMW is of the opinion that the emotional connection between a vehicle and a driver will continue to exist long into the future. The result is the BMW VISION NEXT 100 concept, which looks ahead into the next 100 years of mobility and is designed around four fundamental pillars:

1. A genuine BMW is always going to remain driver-focused. BMW drivers will be able to let their cars do the work, but only when they want.

2. Artificial intelligence and intuitive technology will become one. Vehicles will be fully connected. Increasing digitalisation will lead to a merger of the physical and digital environment and artificial intelligence will anticipate many of our wishes and work in the background to perform the jobs we delegate to it. The way humans and technologies interact will be transformed. Screens and touch screens will be replaced by more intuitive forms of human-machine communication and interaction. Technology will become more human.

3. New materials will open up breathtaking opportunities. Technologies such as rapid manufacturing and 4D printing will produce not components or objects but intelligent, networked materials and could soon replace conventional tools to open up unimagined possibilities in design and engineering.

4. Mobility will remain an emotional experience. A BMW is always about the sensory experience, the adrenaline rush or that intimate moment at which a journey begins. Moving into the future, that’s not set to change. By keeping the driver firmly in the foreground, the BMW VISION NEXT 100 will heighten this emotional experience in an unprecedented way.

Harald Krüger, Chairman of the Board of Management of BMW AG, and the BMW VISION NEXT 100 

The vehicle for future mobility according to BMW VISION NEXT 100 will therefore shift the focus from driver to “ultimate driver”. It will bring “alive geometry” that will enable intuitive driver-vehicle interaction. It will “boost” and “ease” driving modes that will enable the driver or vehicle-controlled operation. And it will be more “companion” than machine. An intelligent digital partner that will connect the driver and car. Materials of the future will be used, but what shall remain intact is the trademark BMW exterior. And the emotional connection between man and machine.