The Flexible Vehicle Interior #CES2109

What will happen in the vehicles of tomorrow when the interiors can change dynamically to meet the needs of the passengers and/or owner? Magna, the huge vehicle OEM, is pondering this question and displayed some of their early thinking on this topic at CES2019.

Their early research is about understanding today’s mobility use cases, as well what might be possible when intelligence and autonomy combine to create new use-cases. Magna Seating’s VP of Business Development and Marketing, Joe Niehaus, discusses three use-cases for how a vehicle’s interior might be dynamically reconfigured:

1. Car sharing with cargo delivery mode, where the seats adapt to meet the needs of various cargo delivery scenarios
2. Long-trips, where the seats offer massages, have a sleep mode and reconfigure to allow face-to-face interaction for playing games.
3. Ridesharing mode, where there are features like
   1. sound zones to allow have private conversations,
   2. meeting mode, where the vehicle becomes a virtual conference room with screens

To gain acceptance for these new type of vehicle use-cases, service providers must address the low-tech, human issues; such as what happens when one forgets her briefcase after her in-vehicle meeting? This might mean a seat sensing system that notifies one’s personal app that your item has been left behind.

Although much of what was shown is in R&D, according to Niehaus, they developed some of the technology around a decade ago. As such, they are looking at prototype readiness in the next year to OEMs with production to follow.