BMW Made A Car That Can Change Colors
BMW created its i Vision Dee concept cars that are capable of switching colors simultaneously and can also communicate the particular mood of a driver at any given time with avatars and emoticons.
I think we all can relate to walking through the rows of cars at your local car dealership looking for that one vehicle that just pops out at us and says, “this car is the one for you.” What if you could change the color of your car depending on how you feel on a particular day, or even better yet, what if your car could sense your mood and adjust its color based on those criteria? The BMW i Vision Dee is a concept car that BMW has been building that can do that and a lot more as it is making groundbreaking enhancements that could change how our vehicles look and operate and usher in a new iteration of the car driving experience.
Last year at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, BMW unveiled its latest concept car, which could change color between different shades of gray. This year BMW brought two i Vison Dee concept cars, the first one can change colors through a full palette spectrum and can have different car parts having different colors simultaneously. It is a sight to see, and the wheels can even change colors.
The operating functions of the second BMW i Vision Dee, according to CNN Business, “The other i Vision Dee concept was built to show off new ideas for the “user interface,” which is how drivers and passengers interact with the vehicle. In this case, the “user interface” doesn’t just mean from inside the car.” These advancements really make you feel like you are in the middle of a science fiction movie. The areas around the headlights and grille area resemble a display panel and can create shapes and hues and can look like it’s imitating human facial expressions.
This gives the car the physical ability to display reactions or moods like happiness, sadness, anger, astonishment, or approval. This may be a little scary when putting it in the context of road rage in today’s society, but also, could possibly act as a deterrent alerting a driver that someone is in an aggressive and angry mood. This BMW i Vision Dee also showcases new technologies in the head-up display capabilities.
The head-up display is not in the console where we are used to seeing it, but it stretches across the entire windshield. BMW has announced that this is an advancement they are planning on incorporating into actual production vehicles with their 2025 models. On these windshield displays, you could have basic driving information, fuel gauges, other operational gauges, and even cartoon characters.
In the BMW i Vision Dee, images can also be projected onto the side windows as well so a driver could select an avatar that would be projected onto the driver’s side window as part of a greeting display as the driver approaches the vehicle. These selections can be made by a slider control in the dashboard and not like a physical slider that you would move but a projection of a slider on the dashboard that would use sensors as your finger went back and forth rather than having a permanent touch screen TV monitor. BMW has named this mechanism the mixed reality slider, which redefines the uses of our dashboards and consoles we have become accustomed to.
The window and windshield display has five levels of digital content, from the most basic driving information to augmented reality information, which relates to the environment outside the vehicle and will enhance things like GPS navigation. There even is a level that it could project a fully virtual world that blocks everything that is outside the vehicle leaving you in virtual reality, and we are anticipating with that application of the program, the car would not be in motion, or that would cause some big accident issues. These are some truly head-turning advancements in car experience technology and show us a glimpse into what future vehicle traveling might look like.
