interview: BMW's color-changing i vision dee digital concept car at CES 2023

BMW debuts i vision dee with e ink at CES 2023

BMW introduces the digital emotional experience, known as the i Vision Dee, to joy drivers and passengers at CES 2023. The concept car showcases a futuristic, electric-powered sedan sculpted in a pared-down, neo-retro design language, which is dressed in the color-changing E Ink. It aims to create a stronger connection between people and car, using artificial intelligence and a revolutionary head-up display – extending across the whole windscreen – to radically transform the driving experience.

‘We have been thinking about ideas within this concept for two or three years, but it took a full, intense year to realize the i Vision Dee in time for CES. We wanted to showcase a future vehicle while being confident of what layers we can bring into production soon,’ begins Adrian van Hooydonk, Senior Vice President BMW Group Design, in an interview with designboom at CES 2023.

The BMW Mixed Reality slide allows the driver to shift from analogue to a virtual driving experience

All images courtesy of BMW AG

BMW mixed reality slides driving from analogue to virtual

Stepping inside the mid-size sedan, the BMW i Vision Dee reveals a first in the automotive field: a full-screen head-up display (HUD). Shy-tech transforms the seemingly clean, textured dashboard into an instrument panel. The BMW Mixed Reality Slide allows the driver to decide for themselves how digital they want their driving experience. A five-step selection controls the new HUD and what is shown, ranging from analogue to driving-related information, contents of socials, augmented projection, and finally entry into a fully virtual world.

‘The whole digital aspect is driver-focused. BMW introduced the first head-up displays over 20 years ago. Dee is the next step, and we will be rolling it out across our entire product range. It extends across the whole windscreen so even though the car has no physical display, it still has the biggest one to offer when needed,’ adds van Hooydonk.

The steering wheel has been redesigned with a central column to navigate controls

‘Luxury is changing,’ continues the Senior Vice President BMW Group Design. ‘I think luxury is becoming more intelligent, sustainable and, most importantly, personal, as it has a different meaning to other people. It was seen for cars to be luxurious to have more and larger screens but, today, that is considered too cold and bright. We want to reduce the displays in BMW interiors. Instead, the surfaces are extremely clean in the i Vision Dee. There is a cloth dashboard in only one color. The digital technology allows the car to be more personal, customizable and configurable to the user whilst reducing cluster.’

The interior is extremely reduced but it is still luxurious and driver-focused. The smooth, clean yet textured surfaces of the dashboard, for example, hide controls and displays until needed. Shy-tech projects touchpoints and both social and performance information. Even the colors of the materials can be customized when desired. The result is a driving experience that is made even more pure than ever. Dee strengthens BMW’s motto ‘hands on the wheels, eyes on the road’.

The cabin is extremely reduced but it is still luxurious and driver-focused

The digital emotional experience begins outside the car though. The headlights and closed kidney grille fuse the physical and digital by acting as a surface for expressions and information. Minimizing lines, the sculpted and continuous surfaces of the car debuts a full-color version of E Ink. Rather than solely black and white as shown in 2022, the concept car changes colors like a chameleon in up to 32 colors.

The concept car’s exterior design is shaped as a classic three-box sedan. Traditional signatures of the brand, like the kidney grille, circular headlights and hofmeister kink, are recognizable but reimagined. A minimal amount of lines adds definitive shape to the otherwise smoothly sculpted bodywork. These emphasize the sharp nose, wheel arches and angular rear.

‘The proportions of the concept car is immediately very BMW. The three box represents a sporty, compact sedan. Its surface treatments and few lines exerts a certain power, dynamism and stance on the wheels when it moves,’ finalizes Adrian van Hooydonk, Senior Vice President BMW Group Design.

The headlights and closed kidney grille fuse the physical and digital by acting as a surface for information