By
Svetlana Soroka
April 18th, 2024
The Digital Emotional Experience will bring virtual reality to BMW, which will display an array of important details on the windshield.
Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (FWB: BMW) unveiled a concept car dubbed iVision Digital Emotional Experience (DEE) – that can talk and change colors on demand – at the CES 2023. The DEE prototype is expected to hit the market in two years, according to Oliver Zipse, BMW’s CEO. As such, the company’s stock market closed on January 5 trading at €88.95, up 1.22 percent from the day’s opening price.
BMW and Its iVision Prototype
The Digital Emotional Experience will bring virtual reality to BMW, which will display an array of important details on the windshield. The German multinational automaker noted that the software and hardware not of the iVision DEE will be a major upgrade of cars since the wheel invention. Moreover, the iVision DEE by BMW has 240 separate color cells that can change individually.
According to Zipse, the iVision DEE is best described as a digital soul. Moreover, the prototype features cool imaginative augmented reality that is maybe available in sci-fi.
“DEE is the next level of human-machine interaction, a concept that cannot be simply dismissed as science fiction because it will inspire our Neue Klasse,” Zipse said.
The car brings mixed reality through a slider where level 1 enables the users to fetch supportive drive data including navigation. Most importantly, the car can show the user what is in the surrounding area.
“Your friends, your family, even your pets without one single animal hair on the seat, which I absolutely love, in an endless virtual world,” a presenter at the CES 2023 said. “You can meet, play, talk, love, hate. You can even go sightseeing together, right inside your car. You wouldn’t believe what fits in your car in the future. It’s like being in your own personal drive in the cinema. But the movie is your life.”
BMW and the Market Outlook
The German automaker has earned its position as one of the leading luxury car brands in the world over the years. However, competition in the automaker industry has scaled in the past few years, with electric vehicle companies like Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) taking the market by storm. The company has been recovering steadily from the coronavirus pandemic that significantly affected the global supply chain, especially in semiconductor markets.
Additionally, the geopolitical differences including the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine have significantly affected the automaker’s production capabilities.
According to the company’s latest quarterly earnings report, the electric vehicle division has recorded a significant bump compared to previous years. Moreover, the company has scaled its electric vehicle production to compete with other brands and also meet regulatory standards on carbon footprint.
“The contribution from all-electric models during the nine months was particularly strong, with deliveries of BMW and MINI brand models up by 114.8 % year on year to 128,195 1 units, more than doubling the previous year’s figure of 59,6881 units,” the company noted in its 22Q2 earnings report.
Recently, BMW announced a $1.7 billion investment in its US operations, including $1 billion to prepare for the production of electric vehicles at the company’s existing US manufacturing facility in South Carolina. Additionally, the company set aside $700 million to build a new high-voltage battery assembly facility in Woodruff, SC. As such, the company is expected to build at least six fully electric models in the US by 2030.