Rolls-Royce Phantom offers soundproofed privacy compartment
The new option is ideal for when you don't want your chauffeur to know your business.
How to keep Jeeves from listening in on your conversations.
If you're the sort of person who can arrange to be chauffeured around in a Rolls-Royce Phantom, you're probably also the sort of person who doesn't want others listening in on your phone calls and business dealings. Recognizing that need, Rolls-Royce will now offer the Phantom Extended Wheelbase with an optional soundproofed passenger compartment.
Called the Privacy Suite, the option installs a fixed window between the front two seats and the spacious rear compartment. Unlike limousines with sliding windows, the Privacy Suite's glass is fixed in place. Passengers can instead push a button to make the electrochromic pane opaque or transparent, depending on how much privacy is needed. It's a similar technology to the Magic Sky Control sunroof offered by some Mercedes models. There's also an opening for passing documents back and forth between the front and rear of the car.
The divider glass can be made transparent at the touch of a button.
That partition is also soundproofed, with specific attention given to muting out the sound frequencies most closely associated with conversations. The chauffeured can talk with their driver at any time by way of an intercom system. The driver, interestingly, must "call" the rear-seat occupants, who can decide to accept or reject the communication.
Other touches in the Rolls-Royce Privacy Suite include twin 12-inch monitors with HDMI ports for connecting laptops or other devices, the Starlight Headliner option and a "bespoke" analog clock. Privacy curtains and tinted rear windows are likewise included for even more, well, privacy for back-seat customers.
The Privacy Suite is on display now at the Chengdu Motor Show in China and will soon be offered on the Phantom Extended Wheelbase.
