SANTA MONICA, Calif.—On Tuesday, BMW showed off its four new concept cars under one roof together for the first time. These cars included not only the new BMW Motorrad Vision Next 100, but also a new futuristic Rolls-Royce, Mini Cooper, and BMW. Each shows us that marque's view of its place in a world where our vehicles are intelligent and drive themselves, which some see as an existential threat to companies, like BMW, that have made their reputations by focusing on driver engagement.

The star of the show, which took place in the Santa Monica Airport's Barker Hanger, was BMW's new motorcycle, which combines previous models revealed in Munich, London, and Beijing. The concepts also build on ideas that BMW showed us at CES in January, notably the triangle-based UI for the BMW VISION NEXT 100, as well as the way its seats move and cant together when in self-driving mode.



Cyrus Farivar

Cyrus Farivar

Cyrus Farivar

Cyrus Farivar

Cyrus Farivar

Cyrus Farivar

Cyrus Farivar

Cyrus Farivar

Cyrus Farivar

Cyrus Farivar

Cyrus Farivar

After some experiments with augmented reality , BMW's chief designer, Adrian van Hooydonk, thinks those full-screen heads-up displays some of us have been dreaming about will actually make it into our cars before too long.

"Today we already have a heads-up display in most of our BMWs. It's projected onto the windscreen, but you experience it like it's augmented reality. But we're working on technology that can improve the display area, making it larger, and eventually we envision that the whole windscreen will become a projection area," he told Ars. An exact timeline is dependent on the company's suppliers, but van Hooydonk thought that "within one to two vehicle generations the system will be ready for production."

The collection of BMW VISION NEXT 100 concepts is on display at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, California, and is free and open to the public until October 16.

Listing image by Cyrus Farivar