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BMW's Color Changing Car Concept Works Just Like An E-Reader (theverge.com) 60

Posted by BeauHD from the what-will-they-think-of-next dept.
At CES 2022, BMW unveiled color-changing paint for its vehicles that relies on the E-ink electronic paper technology found in e-readers like the Kindle. Engadget reports: [N]o, this futuristic feature is nowhere near production ready despite appearing at the show on a live demonstration vehicle, dubbed the BMW iX Flow featuring E Ink. The electrophoretic coloring material itself is applied as a vehicle body wrap but works just like it e-ink displays do in your Kindle. The wrap is embedded with millions of microcapsules each containing a negatively-charged white pigment and a positively charged-black pigment. Depending on the setting, applying an electrical charge to the material will cause either the white or black pigments to rise to the top of the microcapsule, changing the vehicle's color in moments.

While the current iteration can only swap between a pair of colors, the palette could eventually be expanded to display a rainbow's worth of differing shades. "This gives the driver the freedom to express different facets of their personality or even their enjoyment of change outwardly, and to redefine this each time they sit into their car," Stella Clarke, Head of Project for the BMW iX Flow featuring E Ink, said in a prepared statement. [...] E-ink exterior displays could also prove useful in more practical applications such as changing colors depending on the weather to increase a vehicle's battery life (and therefore, range) in cold climates or reduce the need for air conditioning in balmy weather.
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BMW's Color Changing Car Concept Works Just Like An E-Reader More

BMW's Color Changing Car Concept Works Just Like An E-Reader

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  • First actual use will be advertisements. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Fly Swatter ( 30498 ) on Wednesday January 05, 2022 @08:30PM (#62147355) Homepage
    Baked into new cars, because well why not? Ads have ruined everything else.

    • BMW with special offers. Unless you pay extra.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by suutar ( 1860506 )

        I can get an adequate paint job for pretty cheap... although I probably just wouldn't bother with a BMW at that point.

    • Baked into new cars, because well why not? Ads have ruined everything else.

      Don't all cars have ads? What else would you call the make and model - why the heck does that need to be readable on every car anyway?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Phact ( 4649149 )

        why the heck does that need to be readable on every car anyway?

        I think you need to read up on marketing concepts.

      • or worse, the dealership. give me a huge discount if you want me advertising your business.

  • Perfect... (Score:4, Funny)

    by NFN_NLN ( 633283 ) on Wednesday January 05, 2022 @08:36PM (#62147373)

    Now instead of putting a Lyft, Uber or Domino's placard up you can just program the car to display who you're driving for.
    Or you could just buy a car without all those features so you wouldn't need to work gig jobs to pay for it.

  • Near future cop/citizen dialogue (Score:5, Funny)

    by Miles_O'Toole ( 5152533 ) on Wednesday January 05, 2022 @08:39PM (#62147379)

    "My 2031 BMW was stolen, officer."

    "What colour is it?"

    "Um, about that."

    • The two eink pigment colours I would choose are Baby Poo Brown and .. .. .. the greeny, browny, greyish colour of Australian cigarette packets. Which is one Pantone colour away from Baby Poo Brown.

    • On the bright side, you can change the paint scheme to read "WARNING! STOLEN VEHICLE" using an app on your phone. On the downside, you can't remotely disable the vehicle due to "safety concerns."

      • That might be just a tad embarrassing for the thief. Imagine a similar app giving a stolen self-driving car the urge to follow police vehicles like a little puppy.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by cob666 ( 656740 )

        On the bright side, you can change the paint scheme to read "WARNING! STOLEN VEHICLE" using an app on your phone.

        Watching one of the videos, the eInk panels look pretty large so it's not very likely you'll be able to display readable text on the vehicle surface.

  • Looking forward to.... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by HotNeedleOfInquiry ( 598897 ) on Wednesday January 05, 2022 @09:03PM (#62147413)
    Paying $6000 to fix a minor scratch.

    • And dents will look like bruises? Sign me up!

    • Electronics have done this for most car parts.

      Windshields and side mirrors can clear $1,000 easily due to sensors/cameras and related system configuration/calibration.

      Bumpers can run $5k+.

      My dad was a body man and he saw unibody frame designs replace old school welded frames, the result to the auto repair landscape was much less work as unibody cars were much easier to total (bend that frame = totalled - can't be bent back).

      Electronics are doing the same.

  • This will make heads explode at the DMV (Score:3)

    by rjune ( 123157 ) on Wednesday January 05, 2022 @09:06PM (#62147419)

    Wait till someone asks the DMV, "What should I put for color, since it can change?" They will be absolutely clueless as to what they should do or say.

  • Said it for 20 years... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by MindPrison ( 864299 ) on Wednesday January 05, 2022 @09:14PM (#62147439) Journal

    ...and I'll keep saying it.

    E-Paper will be the future of all wallpaper. You'll be able to change the wallpaper of your living room to fit your mood.

    • ...and I'll keep saying it.

      E-Paper will be the future of all wallpaper. You'll be able to change the wallpaper of your living room to fit your mood.

      Makes a lot more sense to have this in your lounge than on your car. (For a start, you see your lounge walls when using it. you don't see the outside of your car). Also less likely to get bumped and scratched (if you are careful). And the shape of a room is easier than the shape of a car.

    • E-Paper will be the future of all wallpaper. You'll be able to change the wallpaper of your living room to fit your mood.

      More likely micro-LEDs are the future of wallpaper. Engineer them correctly and they can be cut to shape and will still work without leaking some nasty, potentially toxic fluid everywhere. E-ink is fluid-based. Sure it's micro-capsules of fluid, but slice down a 2.5 meter strip of it and that's a lot of icky fluid to deal with. Micro-LEDs don't have that problem.

    • Sounds cool, as did the internet in the 90s. However, it will soon be used for ads, and people will install a 360 degree camera in each room with the tech. The camera will check that the walls are displaying the ads as well as whether people are actually looking at them. People won't mind the intrusion, because hey, cool, right?

  • Hey BMW, simpler is better (Score:4, Informative)

    by fahrbot-bot ( 874524 ) on Wednesday January 05, 2022 @09:15PM (#62147443)

    I would have much preferred a simpler video that just showed the car changing color in real time than the seizure-inducing collection of weird-angle jump cuts in the BMW-offered YouTube video. Just sayin' BMW, simpler is often better.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Shemmie ( 909181 )

      Please mod up. If your technology speaks for itself (and this does), just go with simple, and let it speak. Those cuts were jarring.

    • I would have much preferred a simpler video that just showed the car changing color in real time than the seizure-inducing collection of weird-angle jump cuts in the BMW-offered YouTube video. Just sayin' BMW, simpler is often better.

      hear hear!

      However, I don't think that any company which believed in 'simpler is better' would come up with the idea of a car which changes colour. Paint is a fairly simple technology.

  • Not legal in a number of European countries, car registration details must have the specific colour.
    From the limited information I've found, changing car colour without informing the DMV may be allowed in some U.S states.
    Insurance is another story, imagine the premiums when the bodywork is a giant display panel.

    • They can write "Ix flow" on the form.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by jd ( 1658 )

      Well, paint that's a different colour depending on direction is perfectly legal.

      • Well, paint that's a different colour depending on direction is perfectly legal.

        I've seen some wraps that appear to be every color in the spectrum depending on the viewing angle.

  • This both promotes and prevents crime (Score:3)

    by Applehu Akbar ( 2968043 ) on Wednesday January 05, 2022 @09:28PM (#62147473)

    This model would make the world's ultimate getaway car.

    But then again, if you had to park in a sketchy neighborhood, you could run an app to make it look like an old beater.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Around here criminals have started using ebikes for getaways. They can easily outrun the cops who are stuck in their cars, since they can go around traffic and go along footpaths. Unlike cars the bikes don't have a number plate or other simple identifying marks.

  • Soooo, it'll look good in black OR white . . . and everything about it after the first good release will pretty much suck.
  • More stupid distractions on the road. I saw the video of it changing colors between black and white. Just dumb. Looked stupid. People are going to key the shit out of those things just to see what happens.

  • Concept? (Score:4, Funny)

    by Mr0bvious ( 968303 ) on Thursday January 06, 2022 @12:03AM (#62147721)

    You spelled gimmick wrong.

  • If someone dings up your Beamer, this is going make paint repair jobs even more expensive. And therefore insurance premiums will be higher, too.

    • 1. Add cameras to each side pointed sideways. The driver's side of the car shows what the passenger side camera sees. From one perspective it would be as if the car was transparent.
    • 2. display a simulated x-ray of the occupants seated so it looks like everyone in the car is a skeleton from the window down
    • 3. display a picture so that it looks like everyone in the car is naked, or an orc, or a naked orc hip-deep in squirming rats.
    • 4. have animated geometric patterns going. Now there's an accident waiting to happen.
    • 5. display helpful hints to other drivers like "Yo! A**hole! Dealer didn't show you where the f**king turn signal was on that piece of s**t?!?

  • Just if there were no other problems.

  • "Can you describe it?"
    "What color is it?"

    "Hmm, well, I parked it on this side street here and it's a black BMW iX Flow. no wait, hold on, it was red at the time, or was it green?"

  • I don't need a colour-changing BMW to express different facets of my personality, thank you.
  • I expect the biggest use of such a technology would be to stick adverts on the side of vehicles. E-ink for regular vehicles would just be a stupidly expensive option that makes your car look weird and probably makes it glitch out if panels are dinged.

    All the reasons BMW cited for it sound like super complicated solutions to problems already solved - finding your car in a carpark? make the car beep. finding a taxi car that is unoccupied - look at the occupied light etc.

  • Now listen to this... (Score:3)

    by tillerman35 ( 763054 ) on Thursday January 06, 2022 @07:48AM (#62148205)

    Now listen to this.... Dangerously and accomplices dressed as nuns, driving a sedan covered with... you'll love this, duckies and bunnies.

  • How they laughed at the DMV.

    As if that would ever become legal.

  • In the summer, make the car white, to reduce heat absorption, black in the winter to increase it.

    But the real benefit will be if you can control the color from the internet. Lots of people here said they would not be able to describe the color if it is stolen.

    NOPE. Instead, when it is stolen, the car will suddenly change from solid white to have the words "STOLEN CAR! CALL 911" magically appear on it, as soon as you use your phone to activate 'theft mode'.

  • This would be great for a bank robbery getaway driver. Pull up to bank in white car, drive off in black car.

  • My first thought was, "I doubt it. Who wants to spend ages scanning cards with teeny-weeny dot codes (that frequently refuse to read because the sensor got blocked with dust) just to get their car's paint customized the way they want it?"

    Of course, Nintendo's e-Reader peripheral for the Game Boy Advance hasn't been relevant for a good eighteen-ish years now... :/ (Unlike in Japan, the e-Reader wasn't very popular overseas.)

    Still, e-ink paint is pretty cool. Might kinda suck for anyone whose car gets badly s

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