BMW i Vision Dee Concept previews the future of BMW electric vehicle technologies.
At CES 2023, BMW showed off the i Vision Dee – a concept that previews innovations coming to their upcoming Neue Klasse. Dee stands for Digital Emotional Experience.
The exterior design of the i Vision Dee isn’t particularly beautiful. The best things we can say outright is that it isn’t as obnoxious looking as some of BMW’s recent products and at least it’s not an SUV.
Traditional BMW design elements, such as the kidney grille, twin headlights and Hofmeister kink, are all redesigned with a digital twist. Last year’s iX Flow featured hard-to-touch-up E Ink panels that could shift from white to black. This year, i Vision Dee ups the game by bringing 240 FULL-COLOUR curved, laser-cut E Ink segments that form the outer skin of the vehicle. This allows for up to 32 colours to be displayed on the surface of the BMW i Vision Dee and loads of options for each user.
The headlights and grille are also part of the whole E Ink facade, meaning the car’s face can be morphed into different ‘expressions’. BMW are trying to give i Vision Dee a bit of a personality with natural language and the ability to express itself.
The i Vision Dee can also project an image of the driver’s digital avatar onto the side window as a personalization option when the user approached the vehicle. Something the kids might be excited for.
Inside, the i Vision Dee imagines a future where large displays are all but gone. An advanced Heads-Up Display provides all the information necessary while ‘shy-tech’ sensors on the instrument panel allow the drive to decide for themselves how much digital content they would like shown.
There’s also a lot of mixed reality elements that are brought into the vehicle. Some things we like and some things we think drivers can do without.
With the BMW i Vision Dee, the company is looking at a simpler, purer vehicle that doesn’t require a mid-cycle refresh. On paper, this will be better for the company’s bottom line. It’ll be better for customers too as there will be less pressure to keep upgrading as their ‘new’ BMW becomes ‘the pre-LCI model’ with heavy depreciation.
