BMW Vision M Next breaks cover
Meet BMW’s Vision M Next
On Tuesday BMW unveiled its Vision M Next at its NextGen event in the company’s hometown of Munich, Germany. The new concept is a hybrid sports car that also features autonomous driving capabilities.
Why bother to combine these two seemingly disparate ideas? In general, the group of people who refer to themselves as automotive enthusiasts generally hold the fear that once cars drive themselves the pleasures of driving will wither away. The i8 inspired, BMW Vision M Next aims to do away with this tenuous reservation.
There’s probably no company better suited to the task than the one with the words “ultimate driving machine” as its motto. The M Next comes packing a turbocharged four-cylinder hybrid powertrain outputs 600 horsepower and has a top speed of 186 miles an hour.
The design
The low-slung, two-door concept also offers drivers the choice between all-wheel drive and rear-wheel drive, much like the new M5. The M Next will go from zero to 60 in three seconds and has a pure EV range of 62 miles – a slam-dunk, top-trump over hypercars like the P1 and 918 from five years ago.
The M Next, staying true to its name, is full of next gen tech. For starters the car will unlock itself using facial recognition. Instead of utilizing a classic dashboard with screens and physical buttons everywhere, the cockpit is handled by an augmented reality heads-up-display. The coolest part is, the faster you go, the more driver-focused information you get on the HUD.
Of course this is all just a concept for now, but the idea behind the M Next is what’s most interesting. Perhaps the autonomous future will be more involved than we initially thought.
by Nicholas Yekikian
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