Austrian actor gets into an ‘argument’ with BMW’s i Vision Dee, the colour-changing, friendly car concept it showed off at CES 2023 

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Las Vegas, Nevada, USA 

BMW has unveiled its latest concept at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2023, and it’s everything you’d expect although the world’s most famous Austrian (other than Franz Ferdinand) has some choice words to trade with it. 

Yes, ‘with it’ not ‘about it’. You see, the concept – named BMW i Vision Dee – is a show pony for a ‘phygital’ car (a portmanteau of ‘phyiscal’ and ‘digital’), with a key aspect of that being further developed natural language control and interaction. The tech displayed is expected to make its way into production BMWs over the next few years, including the next big step in BMW’s model lineup, the Neue Klasse.

BMW’s video on the i Vision Dee features Arnold Schwarzenegger arguing for his vision of motoring (emotional, old school, petrol burning) against the BMW i Vision Dee. Even The Talking Car Guy of the 80s, David Hasselhoff, makes an appearance with KITT in a little bit of fan service. 

That the concept is an electric car is no surprise by now, but if you ask CarBuyer, the talking bits aren’t the most exciting features of the car : We’re far more impressed by the interior features that support the driver, and the colour-change technology. 

The feature that’s confirmed for production is the new head-up display, which BMW cheekily dubs the ‘Advanced BMW Head-Up Display’ (at least it’s not a ridiculous acronym). It’s not physical screen, but one projected across the entire windshield. BMW says this hi-res projection trickery is the sort of thing we’ll see far more of in future. In a more creepy example, you can project your own avatar on the side window of the car, for the express purpose of startling people you pull up next to.

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A less startling feature is the e-ink skin, with the car covered by 240 colour e-ink panels instead of paintwork, each capable of displaying 32 different colours, which allows the user to create different colour schemes and patterns.

However, like the e-ink concept iX that preceded it, we don’t think this tech will enter production cars that soon, probably due to the big challenges that come with making the e-ink technology rugged enough for daily life.

Lastly, what we like about the i Vision Dee is the fact that it’s a sedan. As BMW says, “The exterior is designed by the classic three-box sedan design that forms the core of the BMW brand.”

The BMW of history is of course the 3 Series, and we’re waiting for a time not too far off when SUVs become so overdone that the world shifts back to sedans (or not, but here’s hoping). People the size of Arnie might disagree, though. 

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