All set for cruising in a multimedia entertainment lounge on wheels
The Sony Vision and other concept cars recently unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show 2022 in Las Vegas give drivers a peek into the near future of electric vehicles.
Sony Vision S2 SUV. Image: Sony / Supplied
“ATesla is a car the same way an iPhone is a phone. Yes, the iPhone could do everything a phone could do. But calling it ‘just a telephone’ is completely missing the big picture,” tweeted comedic tech account @WholeMarsBlog in November last year.
Although there were no major reveals by Tesla at the most recent edition of the highly influential annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2022), held in the first week of January, the electric concept vehicles on show undoubtedly echo the sentiment of the aforementioned tweet.
These vehicles go far beyond transportation from point A to B. Forget looking out the window and enjoying the scenery on long drives – the future promises cars that are multiscreen, multimedia entertainment suites on wheels. Trying to reduce screentime is about to get a whole lot harder, at least for the commuters in countries that could see versions of such cars on their streets in the next few years.
Sony Vision S2 SUV
At CES 2020, Sony revealed its Vision S concept sedan and, over the past two years, has been testing it on the road.
Two years later, Sony demonstrated at CES2022 how serious it is about the electric car business by not only unveiling the new Vision S2 SUV, but also announcing the upcoming launch of Sony Mobility Inc, the company that will “accelerate” Sony’s entry into the electric vehicle market.
The Vision S2 has 40 sensors, “installed inside and outside the vehicle to continuously monitor safety while driving. The sensors provide precise driving assistance, such as advanced cruise control, self-parking and auto lane-change functions that correspond to Level 2+ driver assistance.”
Level 2+ driver assistance is in the middle of the six levels of vehicle autonomy, which are measured from Level 0 to Level 5, with zero being a vehicle with no autonomous features, and five being fully autonomous.
A number of mid-range cars and, certainly, the bulk of new high-end cars on the road, already have similar-sounding features. But technology such as lane-following, lane-centring assistance and adaptive cruise control belong on the Level 1 rung of vehicle autonomy.
Level 2 refers to partial driving autonomy. This means the car can take over steering, acceleration, braking and even change lanes, but the driver has to stay vigilant and supervise the technology at all times. In most cases, drivers need to keep their hands on the steering wheel.
According to Sony, however, their “system constantly monitors its surroundings and provides the driver with easy-to-understand suggestions on when it is safe to change lanes. All the driver has to do is to turn on the indicator and the lane change is done automatically.”
The vehicle also features in-cabin monitoring to assess the vehicle’s occupants.
“Facial expressions and gestures are used to determine the driver’s level of concentration and fatigue, and alerts are issued when necessary,” the company says.
“In addition, the lip-reading system, which is currently undergoing research and development in conjunction with the driver monitoring camera, reliably captures the driver’s speech intentions even in noisy situations, reflecting them into the content display and navigation system operation.”
The system also adjusts the temperature inside the vehicle “by inferring the condition of the occupants based on behaviour read from the ToF [time of flight] sensor”.
The promised comfort features don’t stop there. Sony says that if a sleeping person is detected, the car will automatically control the temperature around that seat only, providing comfort appropriate for the situation.
With a panoramic screen across the width of the dashboard and two additional backscreens, as well as a 5G cloud network connection, Sony says the Vision S2 will make it possible to view video content such as movies or to play PlayStation video games.
Mercedes-Benz Vision EQXX
When it comes to electric vehicles, one of the oft-mentioned concerns is range anxiety, the fear of running out of power on a journey and not being able to find a charging point. With the Vision EQXX concept, Mercedes-Benz faces that challenge head on, giving hope that this won’t be as big a concern in the years to come. The Vision EQXX promises a range of more than 1,000km on a single charge.
There is no clear promise as to how much of the car in its current form will go into the production model. The company says the car is a “technology blueprint for series production”. That said, we can dream that one day 1,000km+ range electric cars will be commonplace, and even South Africans will
Chrysler Airflow
be able to drive across the country with minimal range anxiety.
The car also has solar cells on the roof, which can produce a promised 25km of extra range for long-distance journeys on a single day with ideal conditions.
Although Mercedes provided limited technical details about the new car, much like other concept cars, the interior features a wide multimedia screen, one of the widest at about 47.5 inches of 8k resolution.
The company has used a game engine to give the car an “AI-based digital soul that takes care of you all the time”, says Gordon Wagener, Mercedes-Benz’s chief design officer. It has yet to reveal details on how this will work.
Chrysler’s Airflow Concept, which has one of the most regular-looking exteriors of the concept cars on show, also places multimedia connectivity and entertainment at the centre.
The car, which has a range of up to 643km, has five screens – three in front and two for the backseat passengers. The company says the screens “can be personalised, simplified and grouped based on individuals and interests.
Information on the screens can be shared with all passengers by swiping. Each screen is a personalised space to access the digital world via connected entertainment, apps and downloads.
The connectivity also takes remote or on-the-go working into consideration, allowing passengers to connect to their digital work environments.
“Each seat also features a built-in camera, enabling occupants to participate in a group video conference call from the comfort of the Airflow cabin,” Chrysler explains.
The Airflow features Level 3 vehicle autonomy, which, according to the US Department of Transport’s website, means that the “automated driving system (ADS) on the vehicle can itself perform all aspects of the driving task under some circumstances. In those circumstances, the human driver must be ready to take back control at any time when the ADS requests the human driver
The company has used a game engine to give the car an ‘AI-based digital soul that takes care of you all the time’, says Gordon Wagener, Mercedes-Benz’s chief design officer
to do so.” Unlike Level 2, Level 3 cars have better environmental detection, meaning it can “make decisions” on the road, such as overtaking a slow-moving car. Although drivers should be alert, they wouldn’t need to necessarily “supervise” the car, meaning one could carry on doing other things while the car drives itself.
BMW iX M60 featuring iX Flow E Ink
Unlike many of the cars featured at CES, which were concept cars, BMW presented the BMW iX M60, basically the M60 version of their currently available iX model.
Billed as “the most powerful and fastest electric car ever produced” by the BMW Group, the new model will go on sale in mid2022. But, this being CES, a mere car reveal wouldn’t do, so BMW added a couple of headline-catching twists.
The fully electric M60 promises a range of up to 563km, 0-100 km/h acceleration in 3.8 seconds, 1,100 torque and other numbers that will get petrolheads excited, at least those who are ready to ditch carbon emissions for an electric future.
But, these days, when advances in electric mobility are giving cars more power than most drivers need, numbers alone don’t make headlines. So BMW presented the car alongside a new technology that will be available in future models of the car – the BMW iX Flow.
Using technology similar to the E Ink in ereaders such as Kindles, the iX Flow concept allows owners to change the exterior colour of the car instantly. For now, the colour ranges from white to black, with shades of grey in between. According to BMW, this could help make the car more efficient. Changing the colour to white in summer will reduce the amount of heat absorbed by the body of the car and changing over to black in winter will help the car absorb more heat.
Future applications of the technology include the possibility of having the car exterior flash different colours (to help a driver find it in a parking lot, for example). Inside the car, the 2023 version promises a curved 31-inch widescreen monitor with an 8k screen for viewing movies, in addition to other, more familiar functions. Alongside BMW’s existing MyModes user interface feature, the iX M60 will have a “digital art mode”, created with Chinese multimedia artist Cao Fei, who has created a work called Quantum Garden to be displayed on the screen as well as affect lighting, sound and the colour scheme in the car.
“The Digital Art Mode gives the BMW driver the chance to experience the ever-changing digital landscapes of a multifaceted universe in a screen world, where abstract poetry and sensory pixels intersect,” says Fei.
“Its network of open-ended spectra are connecting our hearts to the call of goodwill from the depths of the universe.”
In the era of NFT art, this could open a new opportunity for BMW to market a collection of digital art directly to drivers.
“For the first time, we are bringing digital art into the car as an integral element of the driving experience, using innovative technology to make mobility an individual, highly exclusive and emotionally powerful experience,” says Christoph Grote, BMW’s senior vice president of electronics.
One for the dreamers: Cadillac InnerSpace
It seems likely that some of the cars on show will translate into production cars in the next few years. The BMW iX is already on the road, and its M60 model will soon go on sale, for example. Even the EQXX and the Airflow seem as though they could inspire toneddown production models within a couple of years. Not so for the Cadillac InnerSpace, which looks and sounds more like a vision of a very distant future. BBC’s Top
Gear says of the car:
“The Cadillac
InnerSpace ticks all the bonkers concept car boxes. “Electric? Of course. Autonomous? Naturally. Never gonna happen? You bet [it is]!”
Featuring what looks like a futuristic two-seater sofa and the biggest screen yet, the InnerSpace is a fully autonomous Level 5 vehicle.
According to the official media release, “AI-driven biometric input and interfaces, accessible via a large, immersive and panoramic SMD LED display, allow passengers to select from Augmented Reality Engagement, Entertainment and Wellness Recovery themes for their drive.”
The interior on its own would be eye-catching enough, but Cadillac takes it up a notch with the design of the car. To get into it, it’s not only the doors that open; the car roof also lifts up high, as though the car is about to take flight. Bonkers!
Bonus: Chevrolet Silverado
The Chevrolet Silverado and Ford F150 are two of Americans’ favourite pick-up trucks, or bakkies as we prefer to call them. With the 2024 Silverado concept unveiled at CES this year, Chevrolet made a big statement on how they see the pick-up trucks of their electric future.
Chevrolet promises about 4,500kg of towing capacity and 9,000kg on future models.
Although it is not yet clear what level of autonomy the vehicle will have, according to the company’s media release, the car’s hands-free “Super Cruise driver assistance technology uses Global Positioning System (GPS) sensing, GPS-enhanced data, a high-precision map and network of cameras to maintain automatic control of vehicle steering on compatible roads.
The GPS uses “real-time corrections” and map data to determine the vehicle’s location, whereas the lane-sensing camera detects marked lanes on the road “to help the vehicle automatically steer and maintain lane position”. The system also tracks the driver’s head position and movement and, when needed, it can alert the driver to steer the car manually.