Volkswagen Group Research, in collaboration with designers and engineers at Italdesign, has devised a futuristic vehicle interior study called ‘Gira’, an abbreviation of a German phrase that roughly translates to ‘the relaxing way to drive’.
The interior concept, accessed via wide gullwing doors that fold open to form a canopy above the passengers, depicts what it could be like to travel in a future semi-autonomous vehicle.
The concept’s four gray seats can be adjusted to suit an array of different positions — for sleeping, lounging, etc, — while the steering wheel sits on a retractable column, allowing it to disappear into the dashboard when the car is in autonomous mode.
Handing control over to the autonomous system is as simple as pressing one of two large buttons (marked ‘AP’ for autopilot) on the steering wheel hub, which also retracts the pedals to provide additional legroom.
The interior’s transformation to lounge mode is voice controlled. The driver’s seat and the front passenger seat slide together, rotate 180 degrees and move closer the two back seats. Meanwhile, the two center consoles between the seats are pushed together and four displays rise up to form the surface of a table.
The Gira concept will be on show at the Volkswagen Group Forum’s ‘Zukunft in Serie — Making the future real’ exhibition in Berlin from December 1, 2016 to February 28, 2017.
