Color-changing cars suddenly pop into reality and may soon be hitting a highway near you. So who is developing this amazing technology? How does it work? And what are the hurdles to overcome?
How does a color-changing car work?
The first color-changed car to be unveiled to the public was BMW's iX Flow, which debuted at CES 2022 in Las Vegas.
Billed as “the world's first color-changing car,” users could switch the car's exterior color between black, white, or a mix of shades with the push of a button. The idea was that drivers could choose white to reflect the sun's energy on hot days, and black to absorb the sun's energy on cold days.
It works using electronic paper display (EPD) technology. The car is coated with an electrophoretic membrane featuring millions of microcapsules as wide as a human hair. Each capsule contains a negatively charged white pigment and a positively charged black pigment, which becomes visible only when a suitable electric field is applied to them.
BMW i Vision DEE
At CES 2023, BMW unveiled a new color-changing car model, the BMW i Vision Dee. This can produce all the colors of the rainbow, not just monochrome shades. The car uses similar technology to the iX Flow, but can produce up to 32 different colors.
The i Vision Dee's body is made up of 240 different sections, each of which changes color independently, allowing the car to display multi-colored patterns. All commands can be given through voice control and will be executed within seconds.
The “Dee” in the car's name stands for Digital Emotional Experience, which BMW says emphasizes its desire to “strengthen the emotional connection between cars and people.”
“With the BMW i Vision Dee, we are showing what is possible when hardware and software come together. In this way, we can take advantage of the full potential of digitalization to transform the car into an intelligent companion. That is the future for car manufacturers, and for BMW as well: the fusion of virtual experiences and real driving pleasure,” Oliver Zipse, Chairman of the Board of Management of BMW AG, said in a statement. .
Car law that changes color
Laws and regulations can pose obstacles to bringing color-changing cars to market. Currently, there are no laws regarding vehicles that can instantly change color using electricity.
However, current regulations in the United States require car owners to notify the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and their insurance company if they change their car's primary color. Similarly, in the UK, drivers must notify the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) and their insurance company.
It's not yet clear how this framework will be applied to cars that can change colors on the fly with a simple voice command.