BMW unveiled an idea automobile that options an exterior created from an e-ink movie boasting as much as 32 colours on the Shopper Electronics Present in Las Vegas. The German automaker revealed the know-how as a part of its newest idea automobile, the BMW i Imaginative and prescient Dee, displayed at CES 2023.
The identify “Dee” stands for Digital Emotional Expertise – and that’s exactly its goal: to create a good stronger bond between individuals and their automobiles going ahead. Following the spectacular debut of the BMW iX Movement That includes E Ink at CES 2022, the BMW Group is now unveiling a full-colour model of the E Ink know-how in BMW i Imaginative and prescient Dee that can be used because the outer pores and skin of the car for the primary time worldwide.
BMW i Imaginative and prescient Dee, relatively than merely alternating between black and white, now showcases a multi-coloured, totally variable and individually configurable exterior. An ePaper movie from the BMW Group’s cooperation accomplice, E Ink, is utilized to the physique to create this magical show of color. As much as 32 colors might be displayed.
The physique floor of the BMW i Imaginative and prescient Dee is split into 240 E Ink segments, every of which is managed individually. This permits an nearly infinite number of patterns to be generated and various inside seconds. The laser slicing course of used to trim the movies and the digital management design have been developed in partnership with E Ink. The variation of this know-how for curved surfaces and the programming of the animations have been developed by BMW Group’s in-house engineers – enabling a type of customisation that’s distinctive all through the automotive sector worldwide.
The design of BMW i Imaginative and prescient Dee has been intentionally pared right down to focus consideration on the digital expertise and the DNA of the BMW model. The outside is outlined by the basic three-box sedan design that kinds the core of the BMW model. Conventional design parts, just like the BMW kidney grille, twin round headlights and the Hofmeister kink, are reimagined, with phygital icons changing analogue parts. This offers BMW i Imaginative and prescient Dee its personal digital, however human, character.
The idea for the i Imaginative and prescient Dee additionally incorporates different options that are supposed to mix the digital and bodily worlds and embody a imaginative and prescient for the way forward for automobile design.
One is named the Blended Actuality Slider — a five-step slider on the dashboard that introduces immersive digital parts to the inside as you progress your finger additional alongside on it.
At step one of many slider, the sprint seems analogue, with digital switches and shows hidden till they’re wanted. Within the steps above, driving-related data is displayed on the windscreen show, with step 4 together with augmented-reality projections that would, for instance, spotlight a bicycle owner or pedestrian crossing on the highway forward.
Going to the intense finish of the slider would entail coming into a completely digital world, with a digital panorama projected on the sprint changing that of the bodily world.
BMW’s windscreen show, which it calls the Head-Up Show, additionally will get an replace with the i Imaginative and prescient Dee. Now extending throughout the complete width of the windscreen, it’s one ingredient of the i Imaginative and prescient Dee that’s set to be applied in BMW’s manufacturing automobiles. The corporate stated will probably be obtainable in its Neue Klasse fashions from 2025 onwards.
To finish the personalised expertise, the idea automobile gives voice interplay, talking to the consumer in a pure language. It additionally produces “facial expressions” similar to winking with its digitally enhanced headlights and grille.