Movies set far in the future aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, but at least they give us some kind of insight into what technological advancements we might see in the years to follow.

That’s if we aren’t living underground in a post-apocalyptic dystopia fending off flesh-eating zombies, those really do seem to be all the rage.

Anyway we’re here to discuss BMW and their 100th year celebrations, which include the unveiling of what has been dubbed the Vision Next 100 concept. This gem has to be seen to be believed, with The Verge describing it as follows:

If you squint your eyes, you can still see a car that’s clearly a BMW here — it has the iconic “kidney” grille, for instance — but beyond that, the details are all visions of a distant future. The entire windshield is an augmented reality display, which takes the place of every single dashboard display. There are also 800 triangles embedded in the dash, which BMW calls Alive Geometry. These multicolor polygons apparently communicate “very directly with the driver through their movements, which are more like gestures than two-dimensional depictions on a display”…

…the Vision Next 100 refuses to take sides in the self-driving debate — when you want to drive, you can, and the car helps you by drawing the optimal driving line on the windshield. That’s “Boost” mode. In the alternative “Ease” mode, the car takes over, the steering wheel retracts (a solution Elon Musk has also suggested in the past), and the seats change shape to make driver-passenger communication a little easier. Meanwhile, the windshield can be used for entertainment.

The most insane idea in the car, though, might be the ominously named “Companion.” BMW describes the Companion as a gemstone-like object that “symbolizes the intelligence, connectivity and availability” of the car that learns about the owner over time and can eventually “perform routine tasks” and “offer advice.” It moves depending on the car’s current mode, signaling to nearby pedestrians when it’s safe to cross in autonomous mode…

You want photos? We got photos…

I’m not really a car person but throw one of these my way and I may get a little hot under the bonnet. That whole ‘Companion’ thing as well, it sounds like something out of Knight Rider.

Like most things in life if it’s good enough for the Hof it’s good enough for us mere mortals.

[source:theverge]