Las Vegas - With the BMW i Vision Dee concept, revealed at the CES show in Las Vegas this week, the carmaker is giving us a glimpse at its next generation of electric cars.
Dee, according to BMW, stands for Digital Emotional Experience and besides the futuristic “E Ink” technology that allows the exterior colour scheme to be configured with 32 different hues, the vehicle has a minimalist exterior design to deliberately focus the attention on the cabin.
The concept ushers in an advanced new head-up display (HUD) that stretches across the entire width of the windscreen. A “production” version of this new HUD system will make its debut in the “Neue Klasse” electric vehicle models that will be rolled out from 2025 onwards.
Drivers can choose for themselves how much digital content they want to see on the HUD, with a five-step selection ranging from analogue to driving-related information, communications system, augmented-reality projection and what BMW calls a full entry into virtual worlds. Furthermore, dimmable windows can be used to gradually fade out reality, which we’ll assume can only happen when the vehicle is stationary.
“Mixed reality can be experienced in BMW i Vision Dee in an immersive way that engages different senses without requiring any additional tools, creating a new dimension of driving pleasure for the user,” BMW says.
Occupants will also get to enjoy a unique digital experience when outside the concept car, with the headlights and kidney grille fusing physical and digital aspects to allow the car to produce facial expressions. It can also project an image of the driver’s avatar on the side window to take the welcome scenario to the next level.
Owners will no doubt enjoy playing around with the E Ink exterior colour technology. Whereas the first variation of E Ink that made its debut on the BMW IX Flow last year could only alternate between white and black, the latest version allows up to 32 colours to be displayed.
The vehicle’s body surface is divided into 240 E Ink segments, each of which is controlled individually, to allow an almost infinite variety of patterns to be generated and varied within seconds.
This all seems really futuristic however, and it’s unlikely that we’ll see technology like this on a production version any time soon, although the full-width HUD system will certainly become a reality by 2025.