BMW Mixed Reality slider: into the virtual world in five steps.

Advanced head-up display BMW in NEUE KLASSE from 2025.

Full color e-ink technology allows up to 32 colors to be displayed.

The BMW Group will share its vision for the future of digital experiences both inside and outside the vehicle at the Consumer Electronics Show 2023 (CES) in Las Vegas. The BMW i Vision Dee is a futuristic mid-size sedan with a new, simplified design language. The name “Dee” stands for Digital Emotional Experience, and that’s exactly what it aims to do: to create an even stronger connection between people and their cars in the future. Future digital features will go far beyond the level of voice control and driver assistance systems we know today. The BMW head-up display is located across the entire width of the windshield, giving you a glimpse of the next generation of vehicles. From 2025 this innovation will be available on NEUE KLASSE models.

“With BMW i Vision Dee, we show what is possible when hardware and software come together. In this way, we can use the full potential of digitization to turn the car into an intelligent companion. This is the future for car manufacturers – including BMW: combining a virtual experience with genuine driving pleasure,” said Oliver Zipse, Chairman of the Management Board of BMW AG. “At the same time, the BMW i Vision Dee is another step towards NEUE KLASSE. With this vision, we look to the future and highlight the critical importance of digitization for our next generation products.”

With intelligent, almost human abilities, the BMW i Vision Dee accompanies drivers not only in real driving situations, but also in their digital environment.

“BMW lives by its unrivaled digital performance. BMW i Vision Dee is a seamless integration of virtual and physical experiences,” said Frank Weber, Member of the Management Board of BMW AG in charge of Development. “Whoever succeeds in integrating the everyday digital worlds of customers into the car at all levels will be the master of the future of the automotive industry.”

BMW Mixed Reality Slider: into the virtual world in five steps

The BMW Mixed Reality Slider, combined with BMW’s Advanced Head-Up Display, is a digital highlight and the central control element of the BMW i Vision Dee. Using high-tech gauges in the dashboard, drivers can decide how much digital content they want to see on BMW’s advanced head-up display. The five-step choice goes from analog to driving-related information, to communication system content, to augmented reality projection, to entering virtual worlds. In parallel, dimmable windows can be used to gradually fade reality. Mixed reality can be experienced in the BMW i Vision Dee in an immersive way that engages multiple senses without requiring any additional tools, creating a new dimension of driving pleasure for the user.

Advanced BMW head-up display in NEUE KLASSE from 2025

The BMW Group is known in the automotive sector as a pioneer in the development of Head-Up-Display and has systematically improved this technology over the past two decades. In the BMW i Vision Dee, the projection across the entire width of the windshield allows information to be displayed on the largest possible area, which becomes recognizable as a display only after activation. In this way, the BMW Group demonstrates the enormous potential of head-up technology, and BMW i Vision Dee presents how the advanced head-up display can be used in the future for display and control concepts. The production version of the BMW head-up display, which spans the entire width of the windshield, will be used in NEUE KLASSE models from 2025.

Welcome scene with voice and physical icons

The digital experience begins outside the vehicle, with a personalized welcome scene that combines graphic elements, lighting and sound effects. Natural language serves as the simplest and most intuitive form of interaction, providing complete understanding between people and their vehicles. The headlights and BMW’s closed kidney-shaped double grille also form a common phygital badge (fusion of physical and digital) on a single surface, allowing the car to reproduce different facial expressions. This means that the BMW i Vision Dee can communicate with people and at the same time visually express moods such as joy, surprise or approval. The BMW i Vision Dee can also project the driver’s avatar image into the side window to further personalize the welcome scene.

World premiere of full color e-ink technology

Following the impressive e-ink debut of the BMW iX Flow at CES 2022, the BMW Group is now introducing a full-color version of the e-ink technology in the BMW i Vision Dee, which will be used as a vehicle exterior for the first time. world at the global level.

The BMW i Vision Dee, instead of just alternating between black and white, now features a fully configurable and individually customizable multi-coloured exterior. An ePaper film from E Ink, a partner of the BMW Group, is applied to the bodywork to create this magical color display. Up to 32 colors can be displayed.

The body surface of the BMW i Vision Dee is divided into 240 E Ink segments, each individually controlled. This allows you to create and modify an almost endless variety of patterns in seconds. The laser cutting process used to trim the film and the electronic control circuitry were co-developed with E Ink. The adaptation of this technology for curved surfaces and animation programming have been developed by BMW Group’s in-house engineers, enabling a unique form of personalization across the entire automotive sector worldwide.

Slimming design: inside and out

The design of the BMW i Vision Dee has been intentionally simplified to focus on the digital experience and DNA of the BMW brand. The look is defined by the classic three-body sedan design that forms the basis of the BMW brand. Traditional design elements such as the BMW double grille, twin round headlights and the Hofmeister curve are reimagined with digital badges replacing analog elements. This gives the BMW i Vision Dee its own digital yet human character.

Inside, digitization goes hand in hand with a reduction in the use of materials, controls and displays so that nothing detracts from the digital experience and a new sense of greater driving pleasure. The unconventional design of the wheel, with its central vertical spokes, creates contact points that come to life when approached or touched and can be controlled with the flick of a thumb. These physical touch points control the choice of content projected onto the windshield and, together with the head-up display, support the “hands on the wheel, eyes on the road” principle.

“With BMW i Vision Dee, we show how the car can be easily integrated into your digital life and become your trusted companion. The car itself becomes your portal to a digital world where the driver is always in control,” commented Adrian van Hooydonk, head of design at the BMW Group. “When implemented correctly, technology will create valuable experiences, make you a better driver, and simply bring people and machines closer together.”

Another milestone on the way to NEUE KLASSE

The future of the BMW Group is electric, circular and digital. The BMW i Vision Dee represents the digital aspect of this trio and will be another milestone on the road to the next generation of vehicles, the NEUE KLASSE. During 2023, the BMW Group will provide additional information and brief details on the revolutionary NEUE KLASSE concept vehicle.