Forget Mood Rings, My Car Does That Now
BMW, bless their little German hearts, just can't resist a technological flex. Their latest creation, a color-changing BMW i5 that looks like a mood ring from the 80s, has the automotive world abuzz. Unveiled alongside some pretentious modern art stuff at a fancy fair in LA, the BMW i5 Flow NOSTOKANA is covered in this wild E Ink material. That's the stuff they use in your grandma's Kindle, only here it can display all sorts of colorful geometric patterns. Fancy, sure, but...why?
The i5 Flow NOSTOKANA is actually part of an ongoing BMW experiment. They dipped their toes into color-changing tech at CES back in 2022 with an SUV that could switch between black and white. Practical? Not so much. But now they've teamed up with a South African artist, Esther Mahlangu, to wrap the i5 in vibrant patterns inspired by her artwork. It's visually arresting, I'll give them that.
The vibrant Ndebele artwork makes those squiggles on your coffee mug look downright boring. Her bold patterns and colors are the perfect match for this flashy car – it's like traditional art got a high-tech makeover. I like art and I like colors (surprise!) and this collaboration proves that even the most ancient of art forms can find a place in the future.
Back to the color-changing BMW. Sure, it's fun, like having a giant digital mood ring on wheels. Maybe some folks will use it to make their ride match their outfit, or go all stealth mode at night. We can thank our lucky stars it isn't one of those self-driving BMWs – imagine the chaos if they started changing color at random. It makes you wonder if drivers behind would be too busy gawking to remember things like braking.
Okay, I have to admit, this flashy tech might actually help those folks in dire need. Picture an ambulance flashing neon green at an accident scene or a cop car strobing red and blue wilder than a disco ball. It's the kind of visibility that could make you choke on your morning coffee with surprise.
But let's be real here. This tech is screaming for folks to turn their cars into mobile billboards. Get ready to have your morning commute interrupted by a 40-foot ad for toothpaste beaming at you. Then again, if the E Ink film is robust enough, maybe we can put this tech to good use, like making turn signals and hazard lights more noticeable. Or, use it to regulate heat inside the car – white reflects, black absorbs. There might be some practical stuff hiding under all the flash.
The engineers at BMW are calling it “Flow technology.” The car is covered in a film with millions of tiny capsules filled with color pigments. Hit them with a little electricity, and those pigments rearrange to change the car's color and patterns. BMW says they've gotten more colors to work, but are being annoyingly vague about the specifics. It seems the tech is advancing quickly, which means you could soon be stuck in traffic behind a giant lime-green Taco Bell billboard flashing its latest discounts at you. Yikes.
Look, I'm all for innovation, and maybe there's something to this whole color-changing car thing. But right now, it seems like a solution desperately searching for a problem. It'll likely cost an arm and a leg, and who really wants their car to look like a digital chameleon? Then again, if it means finally nailing that self-parking feature with some cool lights, maybe I'll change my tune.
