In a driverless future, drivers will do anything else but drive

Advertisement
By Agence France-Presse | Updated: 6 March 2014 11:44 IST
In a driverless future, drivers will do anything else but drive
Brew an espresso, watch a movie on a large screen, surf the Internet or simply sit and chat with friends?

As automakers and technology firms steer towards a future of driverless cars, a Swiss think tank is at the Geneva Motor Show this week showing off its vision of what vehicles might look like on the inside when people no longer have to focus on the road.

"Once I can drive autonomously, would I want to watch while my steering wheel turns happily from left to right?" asked Rinspeed founder and chief executive Frank Rinderknecht.

"No. I would like to do anything else but drive and watch the traffic. Eat, sleep, work, whatever you can imagine," he told AFP at the show, which opens its doors to the public Thursday.

Google is famously working on fully autonomous cars, and traditional carmakers are rapidly developing a range of autonomous technologies as well.

Advertisement

With analysts expecting sales of self-driving, if not completely driverless, cars to begin taking off by the end of this decade, Rinderknecht insists it's time to consider how the experience of riding in a car will could be radically redefined.

Patting his shiny Xchange concept car, Rinderknecht says he envisages a future where car passengers will want to do the same kinds of things we today do to kill time on trains an airplanes.

Advertisement

So Rinspeed has revamped the interior of Tesla's Model S electric car to show carmakers how they might turn standard-sized vehicles into entertainment centres, offices and meeting spots wrapped into one.

The seats can slide, swivel, and tilt into more than 20 positions, allowing passengers to turn to face each other or a 32-inch screen in the back.

Advertisement

Up front too, an entertainment system lines the entire length of the dashboard, and the steering wheel can be shifted to allow passengers a better view of the screens.

Espresso anyone?
And of course there is an espresso machine.

While brewing coffee, video conferencing and keeping an eye on your email at 120 kilometres an hour may sound like a fantasy today, Rinderknecht is convinced it could happen in the not too distanced future.

"We think this is what things could look like in a few years time," he said.

Driving, he said, is on the cusp of being redefined, allowing people to take the wheel for pleasure, for instance while going over an Alpine pass, but handing over control of the car on tedious stretches.

"If I have to go three hours from Geneva to Zurich and it's congested, I'm not doing anything. I want to be doing something else," he said.

Carmakers at the Geneva Motor Show seemed to agree that vehicles that drive themselves, at least to a certain extent, are on the horizon.

"Autonomous driving is an inevitability that we are approaching very rapidly," Hyundai Europe COO Allan Rushforth told AFP.

He stressed though that "full automation" was not a priority.

Ford Europe chief Stephen Odelle also said the technology was speeding forward, but added that he believed "the technology will be ready before legislation and consumers are."

"How comfortable will consumers be with fully automated cars?" he asked, adding that legislating for liability would be quite tricky with no driver behind the wheel.

Rinderknecht acknowledged there are obstacles, but insisted "they can be overcome."

He pointed out that accident reduction is actually a major argument for automation, since once the technology is finalised the machines should be far more reliable than humans.

And while it will be an upward battle to redefine liability legislation, "I think it can be done, because laws must adapt to life, and life as we all know changes," he said.

 

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.

Advertisement

Related Stories

Popular Mobile Brands
  1. iQOO Z10 Lite 5G With 6,000mAh Battery Launched in India: Price, Features
  2. Redmi Pad 2 With 11-Inch 2.5K Display, 9,000mAh Battery Launched in India
  3. Nothing Headphone 1 Price, Colour Options Leaked Ahead of Launch
  4. Vivo X200 FE Launch Date, Colours, and Design Revealed Ahead of Launch
  5. Trump Mobile T1 Phone With 5,000mAh Battery Announced; See Price, Features
  6. Nothing Phone 3 to Be Equipped With the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 SoC
  7. Google Pixel 10 Series Said to Get Faster Ultrasonic Fingerprint Sensor
  8. Apple Back to School Offer Brings Discounts on iPad Air, Other Products
  9. Amazfit Active 2 Square Debuts With 1.75-Inch AMOLED Display
  10. ChatGPT on WhatsApp Can Now Generate Images, But There's a Catch
  1. Coinbase Seeking US SEC Approval to Offer Blockchain-Based Stocks
  2. Google’s Gemini 2.5 Pro and Flash AI Models Are Now Generally Available to All Users
  3. US Senate Passes Stablecoin Bill in Milestone for Crypto Industry
  4. Sam Altman Says Meta Offered $100 Million Bonuses to Recruit OpenAI Employees
  5. Apple Bringing Journal App to iPad and Mac With iPadOS 26 and macOS 26 Tahoe
  6. Ancient Scrolls Found in Qumran Caves Unlock Secrets of Jewish History and Biblical Texts
  7. Ancient Xiaohe Burials Uncovered: Boat Coffins, Cattle Symbols, and More
  8. Supernovas May Have Triggered Deadly Ancient Climate Shifts, and They Could Happen Again
  9. Astrophotographer Captures Stunning Portrait of Lagoon and Trifid Nebulas in Glowing Detail
  10. NSF’s DKIST Captures Sharpest-Ever Images of Fine Solar Magnetic Striations
Gadgets 360 is available in
Download Our Apps
Available in Hindi
© Copyright Red Pixels Ventures Limited 2025. All rights reserved.