At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2023 in Las Vegas, the BMW Group will showcase its vision for the future digital experience, both inside and outside the vehicle. The BMW I Vision Dee is a sleek and futuristic midsize sedan with a new design language. The acronym “Dee” refers to Digital Emotional Experience, and its purpose is to develop a greater link between individuals and their automobiles in the future. Future digital features will be significantly more advanced than voice control and driver assistance technologies. The BMW Head-Up Display spans the entire width of the windscreen and provides a peek at the next generation of automobiles. This innovation will be accessible on NEUE KLASSE models beginning in 2025. Additionally, the BMW Group has improved its use of colour-changing technologies. Having introduced the BMW iX Flow Featuring E Ink at the previous CES, with its ability to transform from black to white, the BMW I Vision Dee can now be customised in up to 32 colours.
The BMW I Vision Dee, according to Oliver Zipse, Chairman of the Board of Management of BMW AG, is another step toward the NEUE KLASSE.
BMW I Vision Dee, with its intelligent, almost human-like capabilities, not only assists drivers in real-world problems on the road but also in their digital environment.
BMW Mixed Reality Slider: five steps into the virtual world
In conjunction with the sophisticated Head-up Display, the BMW Mixed Reality Slider is the digital highlight and primary operating control of the BMW I Vision Dee. Using sensors on the instrument panel, drivers may determine how much digital information to display on the sophisticated Head-Up Display. The five-step option spans from analogue to driving-related information to the communications system’s contents to augmented-reality projection to enter into virtual worlds. Dimmable windows can likewise be utilised to obscure reality gradually. Mixed reality can be experienced in BMW I Vision Dee in an immersive manner that engages several senses without the need for extra equipment, so adding a new layer to the driving experience.
Advanced BMW Head-Up Display: 2025 NEUE KLASSE
In the automotive industry, the BMW Group is recognised as a pioneer in the Head-Up Display and has methodically improved this technology over the past two decades. In BMW I Vision Dee, projection across the entire width of the windscreen enables the display of information on the widest feasible surface, which is only identifiable as a display when engaged. BMW I Vision Dee visualises how an enhanced Head-Up-Display could be used in the future for the display and operating idea. The regular production version of the BMW Head-up-Display that spans the entire width of the windscreen will be utilised in NEUE KLASSE vehicles beginning in 2025.
A greeting scene with audio and digital icons
The digital experience begins outside the vehicle with a personalised welcome scene that mixes graphic elements, light, and music. Natural language is the simplest and most intuitive kind of interaction, allowing humans and their cars to communicate flawlessly. The headlights and the closed BMW kidney grille also form a shared phygital (physical and digital fusion) icon on a uniform surface, allowing the car to display a variety of facial emotions. This means that BMW I Vision Dee can converse with humans and show emotions such as happiness, surprise, or approval visually. BMW I Vision Dee may also project the driver’s avatar onto the side window in order to further customise the welcome scenario.
The debut of full-colour E Ink technology
Following the dramatic presentation of the BMW iX Flow Featuring E Ink at CES 2022, the BMW Group is today unveiling a full-colour version of the E Ink technology in the BMW I Vision Dee, which will be utilised as the exterior skin of a vehicle for the first time anywhere in the world.
Instead of simply switching between black and white, the BMW I Vision Dee now features a multicoloured, fully variable, and individually configurable appearance. E Ink, a collaboration partner of the BMW Group, applies an ePaper film to the body to create this enchanted display of colour. Up to 32 colours are supported.
The body surface of the BMW I Vision Dee is divided into 240 independently-controlled E Ink parts. This enables the generation and variation of an almost endless range of patterns in only seconds. The laser cutting method used to trim the films and the design of the electronic control system was created in collaboration with E Ink. The adaption of this technology for curved surfaces and the programming of the animations were created in-house by BMW Group engineers, enabling a kind of customisation that is unique in the global car industry.
Reductive design – exterior and interior
BMW I Vision Dee’s design has been purposefully simplified to draw attention to the digital experience and the brand’s DNA. The appearance is characterised by the three-box sedan design that defines the BMW brand. Traditional design components, such as the BMW kidney grille, dual circular headlights, and Hofmeister kink, are reinvented by substituting phygital iconography for analogue aspects. This gives BMW I Vision Dee a digital yet human personality.
Internally, digitalisation is coupled with the use of minimal materials, operating controls, and displays to ensure that nothing detracts from the digital experience and the new sensation of enhanced driving pleasure. The steering wheel’s unique shape, with its central vertical spoke, creates touchpoints that come to life when approached or touched and may be operated by moving the thumb. These phygital touchpoints manage the selection of content projected onto the windscreen and, in conjunction with the Head-Up Display, support the “hands on the wheel, eyes on the road” principle.
Another significant step on the path to the NEUE KLASSE
The BMW Group’s future is electric, circular, and digital. BMW I Vision Dee symbolises the digital side of this trio and will be another milestone on the path to the NEUE KLASSE, the next vehicle generation. Throughout 2023, the BMW Group will release additional details and views of the groundbreaking NEUE KLASSE vehicle concept.
