By: IOL Motoring Staff
Gothenburg, Sweden - Volvo's years of research into autonomous driving has confirmed what we all know anyway: commuting is what takes the fun out of driving.
The daily grind to work and back, and long road trips, are when even enthusiastic drivers are most willing to delegate the driving to their car.
Which is why Volvo has developed the Concept 26 - named for the number of minutes the average urban American spends in his car getting to work every morning - time that could be spent doing something more worthwhile than sitting in stop-start traffic.
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Vice-president of interior design Robin Page explained: “If they could let the car do the driving, some people would want to use their commuting time creatively, while others would just sit back and relax, watch online media or listen to music.
“That's what we've tried to capture by re-imagining the entire car experience.”
Page started by acknowledging that the basic layout of car interiors needed a radical re-think, to create a space that the occupants could use as they wished.
So the Concept 26 is built around a new, patented seat design that actively cradles the driver as it adjusts itself between three modes: Drive, Create and Relax.
When you want the car to do the driving the steering wheel retracts, the seat reclines and a large display screen rises from the dashboard, so you can get value from the time you have to spend in the car - working, surfing the net or just relaxing with music or a video, using technology that's already a natural part of our everyday lives.
HUGE POTENTIAL
It also creates a huge potential for new business opportunities and joint ventures with partners that you wouldn't see as a good fit if the driver had to drive all the way to work - such as educational institutions (watch lectures on the way to work) or online shopping.
Volvo R&D boss Dr Peter Mertens said: “As part of our Drive Me research project, we've put a lot of work into understanding the challenges and opportunities that autonomous cars will bring.”
The project will see a fleet of fully autonomous cars driving real customers on the roads of Gothenburg in 2017.
“Volvo is among the first to address the question of self-driving cars and liability,” Mertens added. “We believe the maker should take responsibility for the actions of the car when it is driving in full autonomous mode. If a car company won't accept that responsibility, it implies a lack of confidence in its autonomous driving technology.”