CES 2023: world premier of BMW i Vision Dee

Dee – Digital Emotional Experience: Three letters with profound meaning for the BMW Group. A vision vehicle that enables a completely new kind of interaction and communication between humans and vehicles. The BMW i Vision Dee was presented to the world at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2023 in Las Vegas.

This is where Oliver Zipse, Chairman of the Board of Management of BMW AG, gave the keynote on 4 January and illustrated the vision of BMW Group for individual, digital mobility of the future. “With the BMW i Vision Dee, we are showcasing what is possible when hardware and software merge. In this way, we are able to exploit the full potential of digitalisation to transform the car into an intelligent companion. That is the future for automotive manufacturers – and, also, for BMW: the fusion of the virtual experience with genuine driving pleasure,” said Oliver Zipse.

Emotional intelligence and the ability to recognise the needs and feelings of our counterpart is one of the most important virtues in our digital and busy everyday life.

The BMW i Vision Dee is not only tailored to the driver’s needs; it also anticipates what they want from previous journeys. The BMW i Vision Dee does this by projecting information across the entire width of the windscreen in an evolution of the head-up display – further blurring the line between reality and virtual world.

At the IAA Mobility 2021, the BMW Group presented the BMW Vision i Circular – and with it the potential of circularity. The BMW i Vision Dee now illustrates how digital technology and driving pleasure will be inseparably linked in the future. “At the same time, BMW i Vision Dee is another step on the road to the NEUE KLASSE. With this vision, we are looking far into the future and underlining the tremendous importance of digitalisation for our upcoming product generations,” said Oliver Zipse.

Dee is the ‘ultimate companion’

Humans and cars – a special kind of emotional relationship that defines the BMW Group and the BMW brand. With the BMW i Vision Dee, the company is reinventing this relationship and bringing it into the digital age: A vehicle for all senses. A new dimension of driving pleasure. The BMW i Vision Dee adapts to the driver’s habits, suggests destinations to navigate to, or entertainment programmes and provides information, news, calendar entries or social media posts. In this way, the vision vehicle becomes a companion for people beyond the streets and into the virtual world.

“A BMW lives by its unparalleled digital performance. BMW i Vision Dee is about perfect integration of 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,” says Frank Weber, BMW AG Board Member for Development.

The vision vehicle brings virtual worlds into the car

The BMW i Vision Dee combines digital and analogue into a complete whole. The vision vehicle brings virtual worlds into the car and opens up new levels of interaction. As soon as you settle in the driver’s seat, you enter a new world. This is achieved first and foremost by the BMW Mixed Reality Slider and the advanced BMW Head-Up-Display. The standard-production version of this will be used in the models of the NEUE KLASSE from 2025 onwards.

The BMW Mixed Reality Slider displays content in five different levels – ranging from analogue, to driving-related information, to the contents of the communications system, to augmented-reality projection, right up to entry into virtual worlds.

In this way, the BMW Group demonstrates the huge potential of projection technology and BMW i Vision Dee visualises how an advanced Head-Up-Display could also be utilised in the future for the display and operating concept.

The BMW i Vision Dee has nine different facial expressions

The vision vehicle is emotionally intelligent: It interacts with its environment. The vehicle uses its numerous sensors to register the identity and position of the person and reacts when they approach. Automatically opening doors welcome the driver as they approach the cockpit.

Headlights and the closed BMW kidney grille form a uniform surface that stages a multimedia welcoming scenario of light, graphics and sounds – including nine different facial expressions. It has many emotions ranging from joy to approval to amazement.

Colour-change technology and reductive design inside and out

It is not just the facial expressions – the exterior colour is individual too. Following the debut of the BMW iX Flow featuring E Ink at CES 2022, the BMW Group presented the BMW i Vision Dee, the world’s first full-colour version of this technology. The BMW i Vision Dee is able to display up to 32 different colours.

The design of BMW i Vision Dee has been consciously pared down to focus attention on the digital experience and the DNA of the BMW brand. The exterior is defined by the classic three-box sedan design that forms the core of the BMW brand. Traditional design elements, like the BMW kidney grille, twin circular headlights and the Hofmeister kink, are reimagined, with phygital icons replacing analogue elements. This gives BMW i Vision Dee its own digital, but human, character. 

This outer appearance is reflected in the interior: the interior picks up on the clean design. Digitality and a feel-good character are in the foreground. A clear design, tranquil colours, warm and textile surfaces create a pleasant feeling. The footwell between the driver’s and front passenger’s seats is continuous, and the rear seat extends into the doors. The steering wheel, pedals and gear selector are the only physical controls. The vision vehicle reinforces the emotional connection between cars and people.

The future of the BMW Group is electric, circular and digital. The BMW i Vision Dee is dedicated to the “digital” aspect of this trio and shows a preview of the digital future of the BMW Group.

In the course of 2023, the BMW Group will provide further insights into the revolutionary vehicle concept of the NEUE KLASSE.