The BMW i Vision Dee was recently showcased at the CES 2023 event. Dee stands for Digital Emotional Experience and it’s part of the integral design, intended to act as a digital companion to the driver that “interacts emotionally” with you and accompanies you on your journey “between physical and virtual reality”.
The exterior is a sports saloon with a minimalist design, and a keen focus on all things digital. The entire design suits the futuristic theme of being clean and smooth looking. BMW’s kidney grill is featured on the vehicle in an all-new fashion that allows the vehicle to create facial expressions. So, if you need to see a smile before heading to work, Dee can give you just that. The whole design is almost like something from the Pixar movie Cars.
An ‘Intelligent companion’
The car also features 240 E ink which allows a display of up to 32 colours. This means that drivers can customise the look and feel of the car. This E ink technology has been showcased before by BMW with the BMW iX.
Oliver Zipse, CEO at BMW Group said, “BMW i Vision Dee shows what’s possible when hardware and software are combined. This allows us to exploit the full potential of digitalisation to transform the car into an intelligent companion. That is the future for automotive manufacturers – and for BMW, also: the fusion of the virtual experience with genuine driving pleasure.”
Heading inside the car is an extended head-up display with a mixed reality slider. This acts as the central operating control which can expand into a full-scale digital experience. All the things we are used to seeing on the dashboard of the car are gone and instead, the minimalist style continues inside. Instead, all of the important information a driver would need can appear on the windscreen digital panel.
Virtual experiences
Drivers can cycle between four different levels of digital content that will be displayed on the screen. This starts with the basic relevant driving information, added communication systems, and augmented reality projection. The I Vision Dee even has a level that goes right up to entering a fully virtual world. Yep, the final level allows the driver to use augmented reality projection that works with dimmable windows to create a virtual world around the driver.
Other digital technologies are featured such as the onboard companion who can also be heard outside of the vehicle. So not only can the car smile at you in the morning it can say hello too. The AI companion can respond to the driver and their surroundings. This onboard companion is the soul of the I Vision Dee as an “emotional relationship between human and vehicle is developed”. Not only is the I Vision Dee able to recognise the driver and welcome them, but she can also automatically open the doors.
Additional details on the BMW I Vision Dee are expected to be released later in the year, with information on technical specifications. BMW has already experimented with VR in cars with its mixed-reality experience, where the track becomes a virtual world.
Paige Cook is a writer with a multi-media background. She has experience covering video games and technology and also has freelance experience in video editing, graphic design, and photography. Paige is a massive fan of the movie industry and loves a good TV show, if she is not watching something interesting then she's probably playing video games or buried in a good book. Her latest addiction is virtual photography and currently spends far too much time taking pretty pictures in games rather than actually finishing them.
