Everybody has gotten to see the 2015 BMW i3 in all of its glory either in person or here at TopSpeed, but few have actually gotten behind the wheel of this peppy little electric hatchback. That'll all come to an end when the Consumer Electronics Show->ke3008 kicks off, as BMW will offer test drives of its electric hatchback->ke304 at CES, starting Tuesday, January 7th at 10:00 a.m. at Silver Lot 3.

In addition to giving prospective buyers the chance to get behind the wheel of the i3, BMW->ke178 will also reveal official details on its highly automated driving project. Very few details are currently available, but we suspect this will be linked in with the i3 in some manner, maybe a partially automated version of the new model to show off what BMW has in place so far.

Automated driving is the next big step in the automotive world, as Google and GM are already each in the thick of testing their respective automated driving systems. To date, the closest you can come to automated driving is the lane-keeping assistance and adaptive cruise control found on higher end cars. Future driving automation will likely eliminate all human input, with exception to emergency situations where a human has to override a faulty system.

We'll keep a close eye on what Bimmer is rolling out at CES, and we'll update you as soon as the details are available.

Click past the jump to see a video of a legally blind man "driving" Google's automated Prius and to see the full test drive schedule for the i3

i3 Test Drive Schedule

- Tuesday, January 7 – 10:00a.m. - 4:30p.m.

- Wednesday, January 8 – 9:00a.m. - 4:30p.m.

- Thursday, January 9 – 9:00a.m. - 4:30p.m.

- Friday, January 10 – 9:00a.m. - 3:00p.m.

Legally Blind Man Driving the Google Automated Prius