Rinspeed Budii Self-Driving Car Is A Mix Of Tech And Strange

We've seeing an increasing number of technologies being integrated into cars, but sometimes we wonder when is too much, well, too much. Rinspeed, a Swiss automaker that specializes in putting out concept cars, may have just reached that peak. Budii, it's latest concept, incorporates many of the technologies and features you might want to see in the car of the future. But it does so in a way and in a design that leaves you scratching your head, wondering what happened on the drawing board.

In its essence, the Rinspeed Budii is a self-driving car like any other. It can drive off on its own, with or without any human inside, or it can relinquish control to error-prone flesh drivers. Naturally, it has a set of sensors that allow the car to accomplish such tasks. It has electrically opened doors that make way at the touch of the door and even has specialized compartments for wireless charging mobile devices. Sounds normal, right? However, that is actually the only normal part about this car.

Let's take, for example, the steering wheel. Google's self-driving cars are designed to do away with them, but they are bound by law to at least have a manual override during testing. The Budii does away with that problem by making the steering wheel movable. A robotic arm can move the wheel out of the way when it's driving itself. Strangely enough, the wheel and the arm still actually move to replicate the motion a driver would make. The robot arm can even relocate the wheel to the passenger side. That probably solves the problem of having to make separate models for the US and Europe.

At the top of the Budii is an almost innocent-looking camera, actually a laser scanner. Innocent-looking, that is, until it actually extends upward. The idea, it seems is to give the car an even farther view of what's up ahead to help it make decisions whether to turn, brake, or whatnot. Functional, but definitely not pretty. It looks pretty much like a very conspicuous camera used for spying.

In theory, the Budii can only fit two people inside, the driver and the passenger. That's because the back of the car actually sits two other passengers. Two two-wheeler electric scooters that you can use to go the extra mile, provided you want to leave the Budii behind for a while. It's an electric vehicle inside an electric vehicle. EV Inception! And speaking of insides, you won't find any single, unified design theme in the interior. Instead, you will find a mix of silver from the car's frame, orange from the covers, and shades of blue and purple from the car's display instruments. A mini psychedelic experience inside.

Perhaps the one saving grace for this autonomous car is that it is unlikely to go to market, as Rinspeed's concept products usually remain as such. It is, however, heading to the Geneva Motor Show next month, where it will probably be the center of distraction, and perhaps a lesson of how one can go overboard with features.

VIA: TopGear