BMW Made The i8 Even More Jaw-Dropping By Chopping Off The Roof And Doors

The BMW i8 is one of the most visually arresting cars you can buy right now. It’s difficult to imagine how you might make it even more dramatic from the outside, but the ladies and gents from Munich have done a pretty damn good job of trying, by lopping off the doors and roof to create the i Vision Future Interaction concept, revealed this week at the Consumer Electronics Show.

There’s a good reason why the i Vision is a little more exposed to the elements than the regular i8: it makes all the fancy futuristic tech stuffed inside a lot easier to see. The intention of the concept is to provide “an outlook on the networked cockpit and the user interface of the future”, which in the case of BMW means Minority Report-style gesture control, expansive touch-sensitive surfaces and autonomous technology.

The gesture control system can be used to operate the i Vision’s massive 3D, 21-inch ‘panorama display’, which sits atop the passenger side of the dashboard.

There are three drive modes: Pure Drive (as in, the ‘old fashioned’ DIY way), Assist (where the car intervenes when necessary) and Auto Mode (described as “highly automated”).

The tech side of things is all very interesting, but BMW didn’t just make the i Vision a little more open to show off all the new screens and other fancy bits. It also seems as though this is a statement of the company’s intent to make an i8 roadster.

Speaking with Top Gear, BMW development boss Klaus Froehlich said, “I have brought with me a concept car which is a vision of the not-so-distant future…I personally believe we should build this car as soon as possible.”

So, there you have it, a BMW i8 roadster could well be on the horizon. We approve.