Rinspeed Oasis concept on show at Detroit with ride-sharing tech
Swiss firm Rinspeed show off its Oasis self-driving concept car at Detroit, and it features a small garden plot
The future of ride-sharing over the next decade has been brought to life with the Rinspeed Oasis concept vehicle. We've already seen it at CES 2017, but now it's on show at the 2017 Detroit Motor Show, complete with a live garden on the dash.
The two-seater concept has been co-developed between Swiss firm Rinspeed and connected car specialists Harman with abilities for both manual and self-driving modes.
The concept - an evolution of the Rinspeed Etos from CES last year - has a range of 100km with two motors independently driving the rear wheels and as it weighs just 1,100kg with a wheelbase of 2,360mm it’s ideal for urban life.
The interior has been designed to represent a living room with comfortable seats that can display text in the headrests and even a small garden area on the dashboard to provide a natural aroma in the cabin.
• All the latest from CES 2017
Both driver and passenger get ultra-HD widescreen displays with gesture control and a personal voice assistant based on Microsoft Cortana.
There’s an augmented reality HUD display for both, too, tailored to their individual preferences loaded via the Harman Cloud with social media, weather, parking and a daily diary all integrated.
The system also uses crowdsourcing data to see where future traffic hold-ups might appear on your journey and suggests alternative routes.
And if you’re travelling with somebody you don’t know - highly likely in a ride-sharing situation - then you can tailor your zone to play just your music.
For the user in the driver’s seat, the steering wheel has three positions: work mode where it folds flat in front of you for a laptop or keyboard, the driving mode and a relaxation mode where it folds away from you during autonomous driving.
To help keep you safe during autonomous mode, the Rinspeed Oasis has 360-degree vehicle monitoring to track objects allowing it to prevent collisions before they happen.
Harman has also developed an autonomous drive readiness check when the car is handing control back to the driver. Combining haptic feedback, eye gaze tracking and the driver’s stress levels through pupil monitoring in a three step process.
This gaze tracking is also used in the Intelligent E-Mirror system. On the Rinspeed Oasis, there are no rear view or wing mirrors, instead cameras to display what’s behind and alongside you.
Cleverly these images are shown on your display at all times but light up when you glance towards where the mirror would be thanks to the gaze tracking.
Tom Rivers, Harman’s global vice president of marketing for the connected car, said: “This is the ride-sharing vehicle re-imagined. It’s a big opportunity to make the form and function more personalised.”
What do you think of the Rinspeed Oasis? Let us know in the comments...
