After strapping into the M4 and adjusting my seat, the BMW employee sitting shotgun passed me a VR headset with a bunch of motion-tracking doodads on it and invited me to strap it on. I was presented with a yellow dot on a dark background that I had to look at for a few seconds, to calibrate the eye-tracking system. Then we were off. <\/p>\n
At this point, I could see the outside world via the headset\u2019s outward-facing cameras. A trail of virtual arrows materialized ahead of me, and the system suggested I follow them to the start line. With the confidence and precision of a newborn deer taking its first steps, I executed the worst right turn of my life. Driving an actual car toward virtual cues was weirdly hard. The real world then faded away and a neon-filled video-game universe straight out of “Tron” took its place. <\/p>\n
From the dashboard up, everything became digitized: the car\u2019s A-pillar, the shimmering racetrack ahead, the view out of the window to my left. If I glanced down, however, I could still glimpse the car\u2019s interior. BMW realized people need to see their hands on the steering wheel to drive properly. Good thinking. Even though I had known vaguely what to expect from an earlier presentation, it was tough to hold back my amazement at this dazzling virtual environment.<\/p>\n
I oohed and ahhed and babbled incoherently at first. For my copilot, it was probably a lot like being the sober babysitter while all your buddies take shrooms. They\u2019re going on and on about how \u201cthe trees understand more than humans ever will,\u201d and you just have to be like, \u201ctotally true.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gallery: BMW M Mixed Reality VR experience <\/h3>\n
![](\"https:\/\/cdn.motor1.com\/images\/static\/16x9-tr.png\")
<\/p>\n
I\u2019d get two runs: a warmup and then the real deal. After a countdown, a futuristic doorway opened up in front of me, clearing the path to the track. I started driving, hesitantly at first, abundantly aware of the dozen-or-so lampposts with immovable concrete bases in my immediate vicinity. But after just a few turns, virtual reality became my reality. <\/p>\n
It was still surreal, don\u2019t get me wrong. But, in a testament to how dialed in BMW\u2019s setup was, driving felt natural in surprisingly short order. As I accelerated, braked and steered in the real world, those inputs were reflected in VR with imperceptible lag time. A camera array mounted to the inside of the windshield tracked my head movements as I peered around the A-pillar for a better view. By the start of my second run I felt confident enough to lay into the throttle with a bit more gusto.<\/p>\n
I tried to get a glimpse of the speedometer because, honest to God, I had no grasp of how fast I was going. 40? 50? Nope: 32 mph was my max, as far as I could tell. I swear it felt much quicker from inside the goggles. By the end of that lap, I was enjoying myself so thoroughly that I could\u2019ve gone for a dozen more. <\/p>\n
I\u2019d feared the experience would give me that woozy feeling VR goggles are notorious for\u2014that I\u2019d stumble out of the car and blow chunks at the feet of my gracious German hosts. Thankfully, there was none of that whatsoever. Earlier in the day, I\u2019d tested an augmented reality experience for passengers that BMW is working on with Meta, and that left me dizzy. But to my surprise, my body felt totally normal after a couple of laps. It was my brain that was most affected. <\/p>\n
When the goggles snapped back to displaying the outside world, it took me a beat to grasp where exactly I was. That\u2019s even though the ride ended mere yards away from where I\u2019d entered the car a few minutes prior. <\/p>\n
You\u2019re probably wondering, as I did, what value this tech offers society apart from very cool, real-world video games. BMW has a few ideas: Maybe it could help train drivers for specific scenarios, or provide a clear view of the road in inclement weather. An augmented reality display that could indicate lane lines and other road features in, say, a snowstorm, would actually be pretty useful. <\/p>\n
Or, perhaps, it could just give amateurs a place to make otherwise humiliating and dangerous mistakes on their own, private race track. So that, hypothetically, if an unskilled driver did get a little carried away and clip a virtual barrier or two, the only consequence would be a deleted lap time. And nobody would have to know. <\/p>\n