BMW i8 Designers Work From the Inside Out

The BMW i8 is a hybrid that’s built with insight from the inside-out. When you lean back in the driver’s seat, you’ll feel just how different of a driving experience this is. You’ll get the same BMW performance, but you’ll feel it from a whole different perspective as a driver. The trick is to maintain that same classic feel that we know and love while also giving us something new and futuristic – along with even more control and response.

With driverless cars on the horizon, BMW is rethinking their entire approach to car design. As BMW designs into the future, engineers are no longer focusing on the overall shape first. Instead, the cars are more often being built from the inside-out. This makes the car of the future a tactile exploration of BMW technology, with heads-up displays that replace the instrument cluster. Touch screens and voice controls abound.

This may sound complicated, but the ultimate goal is to actually make the driving experience simpler. This iconic brand wants to remove every barrier separating the driver from his or her vehicle. BMW has always been focused on driver experience. The more the car acts as an extension of the driver, the smoother it delivers, and the more its responses match the speed of thought, the more the driver gets to focus on the joyful experience of driving.

Removing some of the instruments and replacing their indications with a heads-up display can also help to distract the driver less. When you’re tired or stressed, you can look at the instrument cluster too long and lose track of the road. With a heads-up display, and a control system BMW calls Alive Geometry, many of the distracting controls we deal with today will be replaced by more intuitive BMW technology.

Many think of the BMW i8 as a successful leap into the future, but BMW seems to be treating it only as a first step. Given the i8’s astounding success, that’s an exciting prospect.