They are a main source of driver distractions.
Last May, BMW said the same thing.
In 2023, any new vehicle fitted with a touchscreen smaller than eight inches might as well not offer one at all. Modern mid-range vehicles are delivered with displays that vary between nine and 15 inches, and luxury brands have already pulled out all the stops including fully-digitized dashboards that stretch from one pillar to another. BMW has once more predicted that these big screens will soon no longer be.
2020 Porsche Taycan | Photo: Porsche
In May of last year, Head of BMW i Interior Design Matthias indicated that massive touchscreens would soon be removed. Clearly, everyone over in the Am Riesenfeld area of Munich has discussed the topic as BMW Group boss Oliver Zipse states that the trend will be short-lived.
“Driver distraction is the main source of accidents — it’s not fast driving,” Zipse said at a media briefing at CES 2023 as reported by Automotive News. He added he is “absolutely convinced” that these displays are a far too great source of driver distraction and that they’ll be gone in 10 years’ time as regulators will no longer allow them to be fitted to vehicles.
In their stead, larger more sophisticated head-up displays will deliver critical driving information in the driver’s natural line of sight, thus partially limiting distraction. As well, this new HUD will enable all passengers to see various bits of information.
BMW’s new head-up display tech will debut in its next-generation Neue Klasse vehicles starting as early as 2025. The first two new EVs will be a sedan and a crossover.
