The new 5 Series drives itself when the motorist pushes a button to instruct the vehicle to take control.
During the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the world’s biggest tech show, the test car headed down a freeway at 60mph while the driver sat with his arms folded for five minutes.
BMW said the autonomous system had not crashed during tests, but an engineer had his finger on the handbrake button just in case.
The German auto giant has announced plans to test 40 driverless vehicles on European and US roads later this year, in a project with Intel and Israeli driver assistance sensor firm Mobileye. BMW said that in future it hoped to extend the trials to Britain.
When the 5 Series goes into driverless mode, the steering, acceleration and braking are all managed with sensors including radar, cameras and ultrasonic technology. It also uses maps, lane marking and the vehicle in front to orientate itself.
The wifi-connected console gives a countdown for the traffic lights and the vehicle’s occupants can even make a restaurant reservation through Amazon’s voice-controlled Alexa artificial intelligence personal assistant.
An Amazon Prime connection allows shopping to be done on the move with suggestions about where to pick it up en route. Software examines where there is a “high probability” of a spare parking space, into which the car will reverse on its own.
The 5 Series can turn into a cinema, dimming the rear window and adding mood lighting strips as the motorist watches a movie while the car takes over. The driverless technology relies on huge amounts of data being fed in from the Cloud and road intelligence reports from other connected BMWs.
The prototype was one of a growing number of autonomous vehicles on display at CES, with concepts from firms including Ford and Hyundai.
BMW said it hoped to have autonomous models available for sale by 2021. Dr Philipp Reinisch, BMW autonomous driving expert, said: “The cool thing is you have a lot of new time you can use now in your car. You can do your work or watch a video.
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“In the future there would be many advantages in the city, you don’t have to look for a parking space — you just send your car to look for it.”
BMW also showcased a concept design featuring holographic driver’s controls operated via haptic feedback — a technology that enables a user to “feel” a hologram.
The i Inside Future concept employs a holographic screen projected above the driver’s console. The driver interacts with it using finger movements. To allow focus to be maintained on driving, ultrasound pulses provide tactile feedback, as if the motorist was touching the console.
Mark Blunden flew as a guest of Virgin Atlantic, which flies the Boeing 747-400 daily from Gatwick to Las Vegas. More details: virginatlantic.com
