The Rinspeed Oasis concept heads to CES with autonomy on the brain
It's a funky little brick, it's electric, and it's even got a garden built into the dashboard.
Earlier this year, Swiss manufacturer Rinspeed announced the Oasis, the funky concept that is headed for the upcoming CES in Las Vegas. With the show just weeks away, Rinspeed is giving us a better idea of what to expect.
Rinspeed envisions a future where cars are all electric, connected and autonomous. Both axles are capable of turning, allowing for tight urban navigation. It can broadcast its availability status to the internet, so other folks can use it when it would otherwise sit idle.
I'm...not entirely sure how I feel about the future as Rinspeed sees it.
While it might not seem like much more than a utilitarian form of transportation, the inside is littered with creature comforts. There's a garden space for growing small vegetation, armchairs, a television, retractable air vents and a big storage box. It's less like a car interior and more like a living room that just happens to have a steering wheel in it -- a steering wheel that folds away when the car is driving autonomously, of course.
The windows are especially interesting. Rinspeed envisions windshields as large augmented or virtual reality devices when the car is driving itself. The rear windshield incorporates the taillight, but it can also be used as a display for an embedded delivery box, so packages can be dropped off with the car, rather than left unattended on a porch somewhere.
The car is also connected, meaning it can help make dinner reservations. It can even aggregate reviews from friends and offer up new dining opportunities based on others' opinions of new local hangs. The Oasis responds to both voice and gesture controls, and it's capable of displaying messages on the ground as the driver approaches the vehicle.
Rinspeed's Oasis will start its world tour at the CES show in Las Vegas in early January. Following that, it will head to Detroit, where it will hang out in the ZF booth during the North American International Auto Show.
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