Do you ever sit and wonder what you’ll be driving in the next decade? Well worry no more, because Volkswagen has done all of the hard thinking for you. And the answer is that you’ll be getting chauffeured by advanced technology in a mobile observation deck. Looks fancy!
But wait, haven’t we heard all of this before? We’ve been 10 years away from advanced self-driving technology for what feels like decades. Is Volkswagen to be believed this time?
The company's new GEN.TRAVEL concept isn’t even gunning to put boring old manually driven cars out of business, either: it’s going straight for the jugular of that small plane that got you from London Southend Airport to Paris Orly. In other words, this is intended to replace short-haul flights.
The interior of the car has been designed as a flexible modular space that can be transformed between journeys. The idea is that you would book this car rather than run it as your own. You can have four seats and a table for business meetings, a fold-flat two-seat arrangement for overnight drives, and even a family mode with augmented reality tech to keep the kids happy.
There won’t be any in-flight snacks available (although everyone already seems to have got rid of the little bags of peanuts), but the GEN.TRAVEL has been conceived to use artificial intelligence and platooning to increase range. A really long electric vehicle? If only they could connect each part with a corridor and pop in regularly spaced toilets...
Volkswagen hasn’t committed to actually building this car – although it is a working prototype – but does say that “individual features” may be transferred to production cars soon. Like those lovely wheels, or the comfy-looking seats perhaps. Certainly not the advanced self-driving capabilities, let’s not go crazy.
What do you think, could you see yourself in this one day?
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