BMW i Vision Dee concept showcases a 'portal into digital world'

BMW's i Vision Dee concept car showcases the automaker's bid for digital leadership with features such as a head-up display that extends across the full width of the windshield, allowing occupants a "mixed reality experience" between the real and virtual worlds.

The prototype will not go into production. Instead it previews functions "far beyond" the level of today's voice control and driver assistance systems, BMW said. The concept's technology will make future cars "portals into the digital world," company executives said.

The concept's windshield-wide head-up display will start to appear in the automaker's Neue Klasse, or New Class, electric vehicles after 2025, BMW said.

With the i Vision Dee, BMW is "underlining the tremendous importance of digitalization for our upcoming product generations," CEO Oliver Zipse said at the concept's unveiling at CES 2023 in Las Vegas on Wednesday.

BMW development chief Frank Weber said the concept integrates virtual and physical experiences. "Whoever excels at integrating the customer's everyday digital worlds into the vehicle at all levels will succeed in mastering the future of car building," Weber said.

The i Vision Dee's digital highlight is a "Mixed Reality Slider" on the dashboard which, in combination with the head-up display, is the car's central operating control system.

Using the slider's shy-tech sensors on the instrument panel, drivers can decide for themselves how much digital content they want to see on the head-up display. The selection covers 5 steps: analogue; driving-related information; infotainment; augmented-reality projection; and entry into virtual worlds.

BMW said the new head-up display allows information to be displayed on the largest possible surface and demonstrates the huge potential of projection technology. The i Vision Dee's dimmable windows also help to give occupants "a mixed reality experience" between the real and virtual worlds.

Digital soul

BMW executives said the i Vision Dee has a "digital soul." The car can be programmed to give a personalized welcome that combines graphical elements, light and sound effects.

The headlights and the closed kidney grille form a "phygital" (fusion of physical and digital) icon, enabling the vehicle to produce different facial expressions and moods such as joy, astonishment or approval.

The concept is not meant to show design cues for the automaker's Neue Klasse vehicles but is a "vision" for how future cars will integrate digital features, said Kai Langer, head of design for BMW's i-badged range of electric vehicles.

BMW chose a pared down, classic three-box sedan design for the concept to connect advanced digital technology with the automaker's "sheer driving pleasure" ethos, Langer said.

The concept shows how the car can be seamlessly integrated into people's digital lives, BMW said. "The vehicle itself becomes your portal to the digital world -- with the driver always in control," said BMW Group design chief  Adrian van Hooydonk.

The "Dee" in the concept's name stands for Digital Emotional Experience.

BMW executives did not talk about the concept's self-driving features, saying only that it is designed to be driven at all levels of autonomy.