BMW offers a glimpse into its future while revealing i Vision Dee concept at CES

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BMW revealed its i Vision Dee at the Consumer Electronics Show, the world’s largest technology show in Las Vegas on Wednesday night. Dee, short for Digital Emotional Experience, offers a glimpse of BMW’s future as it transitions to one that is electric, digitized and autonomous.

While the vehicle is a concept mid-size sedan, it represents a giant leap forward in technological and connectivity advancements as well as a drastic shift in design.

Ahead of the unveil by chief executive officer Oliver Zipse there was a lot of hype, especially on social media with Hollywood actors including David Hasselhoff and Arnold Schwarzenegger teasing the vehicle.

Visually it’s like no other concept out there. The shape has a muscle-car feel, but the identity is in its changing colour palette. Dee has BMW’s colour-change technology, which is dubbed “E Ink.” The technology debuted on the BMW iX Flow at last year’s CES; back then, the exterior colour could change from black to white. Now, BMW has added a rainbow of choices – you can choose between 32 different colours on the exterior. On stage, it creates a multi-coloured, vibrant effect that allows for individual personalization. And because the exterior is divided into 240 E Ink segments, each one can be controlled individually to create a unique look with curved surfaces that shimmer differently depending on the angle.

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Approach the vehicle and a sequence of personalized events takes place to welcome the driver with a combination of graphics, lightings and sound effects; it can even project an image of the driver’s avatar onto the side window – although a bit creepy, it does add an extra element of personalization. Not only does the front end with its headlights and closed BMW kidney grille look like a face, it can also produce different facial expressions to express emotions such as joy, shock or approval. I’d prefer a few other emotions – like anger if you’re stuck in traffic.

Inside, the cabin is futuristic and sparse with few buttons, dials or knobs – the focus is the digital connection between driver and machine. The steering wheel gets a new look, too, with an unconventional design – a central vertical spoke with touchpoints that come to life when approached or touched that can be operated by moving your thumb. The star of the sedan is a twist on BMW’s head-up display – it’s no longer a small display with information such as navigation directions. This one spans the width of the entire windshield with information including the ability to use virtual reality or even watch movies, when parked.

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“The main thing is hands on the wheel, eyes on the road,” said Stephan Durach, senior vice-president of connected car development and digital experiences before the vehicle unveiling. “When you have eyes on the road, it’s certainly really useful to have information displayed on the car. What you will see is much more information in the driver’s vision from pillar to pillar. The next step is to be able to use more real estate and give you more meaningful information.”

This may seem like information overload, but Durach said safety is the top priority and their goal is to give drivers the right information at the right time.

Drivers can decide how much information they want to see on the advanced head-up display using sensors on the instrument panel. There are five settings to chose from including analogue, driving-augmented reality projection and even entering the virtual worlds. In those virtual reality states, such as driving on a racetrack, drivers can also dim the windows to further emerse themselves in the experience. From 2025 onward, the technology will be available on models built on the next generation vehicle platform, which BMW dubs Neue Klasse.

No word yet on if the BMW i Vision Dee concept vehicle will make it into production.

The writer was a guest of the auto maker. Content was not subject to approval.