The BMW iVision Dee looks to the near-future with colour change tech and full-width head-up display

At last year’s CES, BMW revealed the iX Flow, a concept vehicle with eInk, meaning it could completely change colour from black to white. This year at CES 2023, the auto maker is taking things a step further with a concept called iVision Dee (it means Digital Emotional Experience before you ask). The idea? To offer far deeper personalisation, something BMW CEO Oliver Zipse called “the perfect digital car of the future” during his CES keynote.

Tech-wise, there’s a lot of tastiness on offer with a head-up display that goes across the whole windscreen, something that BMW says will come to production models from 2025 part of the self-styled ‘neue klasse’ of cars which is essentially the next-gen of BMW models.

The eInk tech has been refined and you’re now able to decorate and re-decorate the exterior of the vehicle in 32 colours. The body is divided into 240 segments each of which can be controlled individually should you wish. Could this be the key automotive customisation of the future?

The iVision Dee has what BMW calls a ‘mixed-reality slider’ which is the main control of the vehicle’s infortainment. The idea is you can select as much virtual content as you want, ranging through five different modes ranging from analogue with driving-related information through to communications and finally through to full-on augmented reality.

The vehicle is also designed to have personalized welcome lights and even sound and BMW says this could even be extended so the car’s front (around the grille) could convey particular ‘moods’ to communicate with you and even project something onto the driver’s side window though it’s unlclear what exactly the benefit of this would be.

Certainly though, the iVision Dee points the way towards a more customisable version of future vehicles and BMW says there is more to come during 2023 as part of the preview of the upcoming ‘neue klasse’ of cars, which Zipse says should “embrace the future while looking to the past”.

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Dan is Editor-in-chief of Stuff, working across the magazine and the Stuff.tv website. Our Editor-in-Chief is a regular at tech shows such as CES in Las Vegas, IFA in Berlin and Mobile World Congress in Barcelona as well as at other launches and events. He has been a CES Innovation Awards judge. Dan is completely platform agnostic and very at home using and writing about Windows, macOS, Android and iOS/iPadOS plus lots and lots of gadgets including audio and smart home gear, laptops and smartphones. He's also been interviewed and quoted in a wide variety of places including The Sun, BBC World Service, BBC News Online, BBC Radio 5Live, BBC Radio 4, Sky News Radio and BBC Local Radio.