Bentley brings coachbuilding craftsmanship and high-tech innovation together.
Bentley’s Mulliner department has its roots and history in one of the world’s oldest coachbuilders, and the Bentley Mulliner Batur is the latest and greatest example of its abilities: an ultra-rare, opulent, and powerful grand touring coupe with a futuristic design and classic artisanal craftsmanship. To provide the Batur, of which only 18 examples will exist, Bentley has chosen to rely on its classic mix of beautiful materials: metal, wood, and leather. However, a fourth has entered the mix: light.
Bentley’s EXP100 GT concept and its illuminated grille from 2019 served as the inspiration for this stunning and unique element of the Batur, which is a projection system that uses Digital Light Processing, or DLP for short, implemented in the welcome lights that is able to display welcome animations that evoke the look of light shining through cut crystal. Advancing the manufacturer’s capabilities for digital personalization, the projection system allows clients to choose their own welcome animations, creating their very own crystalline light shows displayed on the ground.
The innovation involved in creating the system is immense. The DLP system uses 3 colored light sources, which go through five lenses and two prisms to a Digital Micromirror Device, which the goes through five more lenses to create the image you’ll see displayed on the ground. The micromirror device is a tiny chip that features 415,800 microscopic mirrors made of aluminum, with each being a fifth of the width of a human hair at 16 micrometers. Each mirror is responsible for creating one pixel of the animation.
As Bentley ventures towards the future with incredible technology and innovation along with a timeless and historic dedication to coachbuilding, bespoke luxury, and traditional craftsmanship, the Batur is a shining symbol of its incredible capabilities through Mulliner as a purveyor of the world’s most desirable bespoke luxury vehicles, and as small of a detail as it is, this digital personalization technology is one of the most beautiful aspects of the Batur’s incredible craftsmanship.
Image Source: Bentley