LAS VEGAS
BMW unveiled i Vision Dee at CES 2023, a futuristic mid-size concept sedan with the ability to talk and swap its exterior skin with 32 colors using E Ink technology, among a number of digital emotion experiences.
Starting in 2025, the carmaker said it will provide a Head-Up-Display across the full width of the windscreen as a feature of coming models of its “Neue Klasse.”
Other futuristic virtual experience features of the sedan were described in an unusual, if bizarre, keynote presentation late Wednesday featuring a live appearance by actor and former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and TV and movie cars from a bygone era—KITT, the talking Pontiac Trans-Am from the Knight Rider series, and Herbie, the VW from the 1968 film, “The Love Bug,” that communicated by opening and closing its doors.
BMW Chairman Oliver Zipse said the i Vision Dee shows “what is possible when hardware and software merge….We are looking far into the future and underlining the tremendous importance of digitalization for our upcoming product generations.” He also said the car can be viewed as a “companion” to its driver.
One feature shown is a mixed reality slider control to be used in combination with the HUD that allows drivers to decide for themselves how much digital content they want to see on the HUD. Five steps in the slider culminate in an augmented reality projection and an entry into virtual worlds, although audience members seemed mystified how the process would actually work.
The ability to change colors and add racing stripes to the exterior, by comparison, won enthusiastic applause from the audience. An actress voiced Dee in the keynote presentation for the concept sedan, although BMW didn’t make it clear how much it expects its future vehicles to talk. In a statement, the company said i Vision Dee “can talk to people and at the same time express moods such as joy, astonishment or approval visually.” The vehicle can even project an image of the driver’s avator onto the side window to personalize it. And, the headlights and grill can work together to produce simple facial expressions, although that capability was not clear during the presentation.
Concept vehicles are commonly used by carmakers to express what is possible, not necessarily what will come about.
The E Ink capability is provided with 240 segments, each controlled individually, to allow patterns. Light and dark colors can be used to express moods, for instance.
BMW said i Vision Dee will be a milestone toward its next vehicle generation, the Neue Klasse, that it will further describe later in 2023.
