Spike has been a part of the Mini story since the modern Mini first debuted in 2001. The bulldog mascot is a representation of the British heritage of the company. BMW is now leveraging the mascot’s appeal to make it a central figure of its automotive display for Mini. Spike has been reimagined as the Mini Intelligent Personal Assistant and guides users through the future Mini model family’s operating concept. Spike appears as an active protagonist in the cockpit of the new Mini Concept Aceman, where he resides on the circular OLED central display and dashboard. It’s a cute dog and that may be all it takes to drive OLED sales in automotive.
BMW believes that it’s doing something meaningful for the Mini community. The company’s Mini design team took Spike from an initial sketch to a versatile companion that draws attention to the Mini beyond the usual stuff like engines, chassis, and body, and stuff like that. Spike has already been staged as an art toy as part of the world premiere of the Mini Concept Aceman. The launch of Spike, as a brand, is supposed to further strengthen the emotional connection between Mini and its drivers’ individual lifestyles. Despite the corny press launch, there might be something to what BMW is trying to do here, and it’s all thanks to modern automotive displays. Now, it is possible to add personality to a car cockpit in a way that wasn’t really possible before. I am going to remain cautious, but I have a nagging feeling that if BMW gets this right, they might be onto something, and some day we will all have a friendly assistant on our dashboards.
