BMW made this really weird short film to celebrate 20 years of iDrive

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  In 2001, BMW put a digital display in the dash of its newest 7 Series, heralding the advent of the iDrive infotainment system. [credit: BMW ]

With the coronavirus pandemic causing CES to be held virtually this year, some exhibitors have been looking for different ways to capture our attention. Take BMW for example. In CESes of yore, the German automaker often had a large presence, showing off concepts and even providing a fleet of cars for five-minute test drives. Obviously that won’t work in 2021, which is a shame for BMW because this year marks the 20th anniversary of its very first iDrive infotainment system, which debuted in the 2001 7 Series.

So instead, the automaker made this short film to mark the occasion. Warning: it’s pretty weird, but at the same time I think it’s kind of charming, featuring an old graybeard 7 Series meeting a young whippersnapper iX SUV one night at the BMW museum.

Back in 2001 the 7 Series was BMW’s flagship sedan, loaded to the gunnels with the latest and greatest technology the Bavarians could muster. In previous generations that meant powered reclining rear seats and maybe a car phone. But that year the new 7 Series arrived with something called iDrive, combining the car’s entertainment equipment with navigation and a way to interact with the car’s settings. A pair of screens—one in the main instrument display, one in the center stack—displayed information, and to interact with it all, a rotary controller on the center console. In short, it was one of the first true infotainment systems.