BMW's new interior interface is made up of four parts, each designed to minimize distraction as much as possible.

The terminology, in typical Germanic fashion, is a little confusing. The entire system is called "Panoramic iDrive," with “Panoramic Vision” being the funky horizontal band display across the whole dash; meanwhile, the all-new software the whole enchilada runs on is named “BMW Operating System X.”

Called Panoramic iDrive with BMW Operating System X, the tech includes a full windscreen-width display capable of showing a raft of info, along with additional head-up display and touchscreens. Is it a good thing? We attended an early hands-on demo of the system to find out…