Meet BMW advertisement for Neue Klasse’s next-generation vehicle architecture and vision for comprehensive digital control. This is BMW car i Vision Dee concept, a midsize sedan, was introduced tonight at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. “Dee” stands for Digital Emotional Experience – the subject of a social media takeover starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, David Hasselhoff and KITT But let’s start with the medium itself.
As for the design – and we’re not saying this makes sense – if you render a BMW Brand evolved into a vehicle from the first Midnight Club game in 2000 before these cars were licensed, you’ll have a good basis for explaining to someone what the i Vision Dee looks like. BMW actually said so about the sheet metal, calling it “a new and simplified design language”. To inform fans of the brand, design director Adrian van Hooydonk said the automaker will simplify the visual language of the current lineup – and so quickly that the entire BMW lineup will be refurbished in the next three years. It’s hard to say if that’s good news.
Even so, BMW is always aiming for the big digital game; iDrive began large-scale digitization of the BMW occupant experience 22 years ago. On the i Vision Dee, BMW markings are also digitized. It’s a low-polygon three-box sedan. The circular twin headlights are represented as double diagonal stripes inside the digital kidney grille. You can recognize the shape of the grille contour extending from bmw m The hybrid V8 LMDh racer is aiming for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in 2023. The grille here is a dual screen instead of an air intake, BMW says the concept can “create different facial expressions” [and] express moods such as joy, surprise or visual approval.” The taillights play a similar role, with a Hoffmeister twist between them.
Now to Dee, the star of this show, a combination of “nerve” and “Hers.” KITT will indeed be the best spokesperson for Digital Emotional Experience, the concept of “showing what is possible when hardware and software combine.” Dee Vision “[exploits] the full potential of digitization to turn the car into a smart companion.”
The front and side windows are screens. The head-up display runs the length of the windshield. The amount of information displayed there can be selected in five stages on a “mixed reality slider”: similar; driver-related information; the content of the communication system; augmented reality projection; and “into the virtual world.” The press release did not explain that last bit. But PR has revealed that dimmable windows can create a vibrant digital environment, and the concept can project the owner’s avatar onto the driver’s side window “to personalize humanize the welcome script.”
The interior is another help of the sleek, fare concept; Most of us still have questions. The steering wheel “can be operated by moving the thumb” and “creates vivid contact points when approached or touched.” We’re also not sure how far Dee can go with “integrating customers’ everyday digital worlds into media at every level,” just that, “Natural language is a simple form of interaction.” simplest, most intuitive, allowing perfect understanding between man and vehicle.”
We know more about the new E Ink technology. At CES last year, BMW brings the iX Flow concept wrapped in an ePaper film. Using the same technology as the Amazon Kindle, the film is able to create shifting grayscale patterns throughout the body — as if Rorschach from “The guard” is a car. This year’s update is color E-ink is applied to i Vision Dee using ePaper development. Up to 32 colors can be displayed on 240 E Ink segments, each individually controlled. BMW’s in-house engineers have created the animations so we can’t see the rainbow without tasting it, so stay tuned for the dazzling video to come.
The Neue Klasse Architecture will begin to “bring people and machines closer together” starting in 2025. The Dee and the full-width HUD will accompany it, part of the future of the BMW Group being “electric, circular and digital”. It looks like E Ink will have a small part somewhere, but that hasn’t been mentioned. We will really pay attention now and then to understand what we will face when Dee and the new series of “discounted” vehicles come out.
