It's the sort of thing you'd expect to see in a James Bond movie, but BMW has created a color-changing vehicle that actually drives in real life.
Debuting at CES XNUMX, the custom all-electric BMW iX features body panels made with Y Too Ink screens, the same technology found on a Kindle e-reader screen, in a system 'he calls' iX Flow '.
Once the e-ink panels are on the vehicle, they are covered with a unique coating to protect them from the elements.
In the virtual demo shown to us, the changed BMW iX went from white to black and then back to white again. It's a strong showing, although when it's white, instead of a clean colour, the car has a triangular pattern on the bodywork.
This is most likely due to the physical makeup of the vehicle panels and something less obvious from a distance.
While the demo today only changes the vehicle's hue between black and white, BMW claims that other colors are possible, opening up the possibility of real plurality for users in the future.
And future implementations of this technology won't be limited to body color changes.
BMW explained that the technology could be used in specific areas of a vehicle, such as the grille, to make it look different, or even on license plates (although there would be many legal restrictions here).
There's more, too: Like an e-reader, with this technology you can have your vehicle display information (in pictures and in text) about its exterior, things like charge status, which would be a useful feature for electric car owners.
So go, but is it realistic?
E-ink panels are well known in the tech industry, and while they're most generally associated with e-readers, they've also appeared on handheld devices, smartphones, tablets, and more.
A very versatile and flexible product, Y also Ink can be cut into different shapes and drilled, which makes it ideal when it comes to covering the dark corners of a vehicle.
The panels have a lot of transparent capsules that have colored pigments, and when a current passes through them, certain colors can be recovered on the surface. It may sound like something potentially energy intensive, but it is not.
In fact, only a tiny amount of energy is needed to change colors and none is needed to hold a color in place. This means the system has ultra-low power consumption, which should allay fears about the feature draining the EV battery and complicating your vehicle's range.
So are we really going to see something like this in a vehicle generally free to the public? Indeed, BMW does not rule it out, and points out that the first traces of the technology are positive.
BMW believes this is realistic due to the fact that electronic ink is not such a complex material, and it is also not unrealistic in terms of cost.