What is BMW doing?

It certainly is interesting to look at.

They have put a lot of energy into the visual form experience here, but I am having a difficult time buying into their idea that digital information can be delivered by bringing the surface geometry “Alive”. They are deliberately moving away from the screen/monitor approach of info delivery which is a bold move, but to do so it must improve the experience and simplify driving and riding…no? I see a lot of complexity creation here that will require the user to undergo a lengthy education conditioning process similar to the iDrive concept, of which BMW seems to have been successful at, so they are building on their strengths it seems.

Additionally, this concept seems to move away from the voice/audio experience trajectory of current information delivery in a move to appeal to a more visual approach to designing experience and interacting with information while at speed or at a stop sign. A clear indication that too many males and not enough females might have been on this design team…maybe?

The dragon skin wheel wells do not support their premise of the future of “drividing” (driving/riding) and are only used as a trade show selling trick to draw the customer into the more abstract concept. This is rather dishonest and downright cheesy to my design and production sensibilities as well. However, getting those 14 year olds interested in the brand does put on display some rather explicit video game level styling flourishes…China and dragons have a long visual history together.