The BMW i Vision Dee is a future EV sport sedan that can talk back to you

Everyone talks about BMW.

When the vehicles change with the times, BMW's superfans don't hold their tongues.

A new BMW concept asks if the car had something to say. How would a car interact with its owner?

The BMW i Vision Dee is a digital emotional experience. It is one of BMW's most radical concept cars in a long time. It's a minimalist electric performance sedan that leans hard into digital features. Sport sedans are in the form of the metaverse. A driver's profile can be projected onto the side window with the concept.

How would a car communicate with its owner?

The i Vision Dee has a grille that is color-changing and has its own expressions on top of a virtual voice. The BMW may have hot takes of it's own. One thing the car said to me at a recent tech demonstration was that it was my father's E30, and early social media promotions for the concept evoked the ‘80s talking car show Knight Rider.

According to the news release, the headlights and closed BMW kidney grille allow the vehicle to produce different facial expressions. The BMW i Vision Dee can communicate and express moods at the same time.

The i Vision Dee is a concept car that is meant to be a preview of future designs and technologies. The design feels like it could be a preview of a future electric 3 Series or i 4.

The i Vision Dee looks a lot like a 2002 or an E30. The concept's front and rear light bars sweep across the front of the car. The white, almost featureless body of the BMW is a stark contrast to the fussy designs of many current BMWs.

It is safe to assume that this design will have an influence on future cars. The i3 city car from the past decade is a good example of how BMW concepts can turn into reality. BMW calls this a milestone in the development of their EV-specific car platform. BMW defined its image in the 1960s and 1970s with the New Class of sport sedans and coupes.

While current BMWs tend to be built to offer a mix of internal combustion, hybrid, or EV power, the next round of models is designed from the ground up to be electric for better

BMW says the i Vision Dee also represents a significant evolution of the E Ink color-shifting technology that debuted at last year's Consumer Electronics Show and, as a result, can transform its exterior into 32 different colors. BMW says the concept's body can be controlled individually. BMW said the technology could be close to commercialization at the consumer level.

The i Vision Dee is a three-box sedan instead of a SUV. It is a bold move from BMW and one that is at odds with current trends, as sedan sales have been on the decline for years.

At a press preview in Germany last year, BMW design boss Domagoj Dukec stated that the sport sedan is still important to the company.

Dukec said that they will adapt if the world is changing. Everyone in my team loves the brand and they know their history. They don't want that to stop.

Dukec said it was also BMW. The 3 and 5 series are the core product.

Who needs screens when you have a windshield? 

There are no screens in the i Vision Dee, good news for drivers who don't like the idea of in-car screens.

The concept's bare-bones stark gray interior is even more minimal in design than the outside, with a stripped-down steering wheel, seats, and a touch panel that controls how much information the driver sees on the advanced heads-up display.

The i Vision Dee looks a lot like a Model 3 and a BMW.

The bad news for drivers who don't like screens is that the whole windshield is now a display, mixing the functions of a dashboard with an entertainment system and augmented reality features.

Modern cars project vehicle speeds, navigation, and other data there, and have in various forms since the 1980s. That idea is taken to a new level by this concept.

Social media posts and augmented reality displays can be seen on the screen. Drivers and passengers can go full virtual reality mode if the other windows are dimmable. Is this going to create a huge distraction? BMW says it is safer to take your eyes off the road to look at a dashboard mounted screen.

BMW said in a statement that information can be displayed on the largest possible surface once it is activated. The car shows how an advanced Head-Up-Display could be used in the future.

The version of the system that will be used on the Neue Klasse cars will probably be a smaller version.

A companion not just a car.

The i Vision Dee won't be ready for prime time in 2023, but it feels like a realistic approach to where the automotive industry is going.

The entire window is a display.

The BMW i Vision Dee shows what is possible when hardware and software come together. Oliver Zipse, BMW's board chairman, said in a statement that the car could be transformed into an intelligent companion by exploiting the full potential of digital technology.

It is cold comfort to the people who want BMW to go back to its old ways. Critics of the technologies in the i Vision Dee will not be helped by it. The decision of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to pivot to the metaverse has been met with a lot of disdain. Some of the features on the i Vision Dee, such as the talking virtual assistant, may not be what drivers want.

BMW says yes even as it struggles to get drivers to accept subscription features. The future isn't going to be high-revving inline-six engines and manual transmissions, so BMW has to find a way to convince the diehard faithful that " performance" can be defined by things like software speed, charging time, and electric range The cars it produces in the immediate future probably won't be as ambitious as the i Vision Dee, but it shows that BMW is thinking in that direction.