Volvo To Dominate Autonomous Car Cabins

by under News on 29 Nov 2016 07:37:48 PM29 Nov 2016
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In an exclusive interview with Autocar, the design heads at Swedish car firm Volvo said that their sights are set firmly on leading the pack when it comes to the design of autonomous car cabins. Senior vice president of design, Tomas Ingenlath, explained that Volvo has always placed an emphasis on overall passenger comfort, as opposed to the driver-centric cabins that have become standard fare with competitors. 

“Not being a company that has a a passion for power and driver focus means that we have spent more time exploring the passenger lounge area,” Ingenlath said. “In the S90 Excellence, we used a special centre console and took a seat out to explore what you could actually do with this space.”

Further emphasising this, Volvo has gone as far as to conduct studies to “maximise well-being for all passengers,” and this knowledge has proven invaluable in their pursuit to create the best possible cabins for autonomous vehicles. “Now we see all these exercises have become elements in a big puddle, and we were naturally researching in this area. It shows our way, of looking into a car, has naturally turned into how you use a car in the future.”

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The vice president of interior design at the Swedish marque, Robin Page, said that the three design studios that Volvo maintains in America, Sweden, and China, has proven very valuable, with each team bringing unique approaches and ideas when it comes to designing Volvo cabins. “We have a studio in California, and it’s noticed that Los Angeles as a car market is a driver for electronic development. China is more about rear passengers and luxury, while Europe is a bit special because it still focuses on the driver,” he commented. 

While every market has unique requirements and preferences, there are certain commonalities: Electrification, autonomous technology, and connectivity demands were largely shared across markets. “The tough part from our point [to meet these demands] is that we have to add more feature content, entertainment, and things that can entertain and put [passengers] into different situations when they’re not driving the cars,” Page said. 

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