German luxury vehicle manufacturing company BMW unveiled the concept for a virtual touchscreen, that appears to be floating inside the car, at the recent Consumer Electronics Show (CES). The display is supposed to show the driver information about navigation and music among other things. BMW claims the floating display will be touch-sensitive in a way that drivers will feel the sensation of physical touch to avoid distraction from the road.

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The all-new display, called the HoloActive Touch system, is something that has never been achieved before by any automaker company. The holograph-style display is designed to provide a tactile feedback in response to any interactions it has with the driver and passengers in the car.

The new interactive display is part of the company's Inside Future study which was designed to give the attendees at CES a glimpse into the future of fully connected cars with self-driving features. Additionally, the HoloActive Touch system will be incorporated with heads-up display features which means that the driver's field of view will be spanned with an immersive panel showing all information about the car and its rides.

According to TechCrunch, the technology used by BMW to bring the concept to life might have been outsourced to Ultrahaptics, a company which has been working on creating invisible buttons to provide a tangible interface to the user to track his hand. To achieve the sensation of physical touch on invisible buttons and dials, the company uses ultrasonic waves (sound which cannot be detected by humans).

However, this is still a concept, and it would take a long time to be brought to life. BMW's iDrive, which is centered around using a puck-type controller to navigate infotainment features, was considered difficult to use initially but has been improved considerably in recent years.