Thanks to its outrageous concepts, Rinspeed is anything but forgettable. The Oasis is the latest vehicle to come out of Frank M. Rinderknecht’s company, and it’s “visionary”.
Representing the next step of the evolution of personal transport, the Oasis is being described as a bold statement in the multi-ton, SUV-ruled city jungle and a clever self-driving electric vehicle for the urban sphere.
Many have tackled the concept of a self-driving, personal mini-bus before, including Rinspeed, so what’s so special about this one?
Well, for starters, the two-seat runabout is capable of turning on its own axle, having an almost zero turning radius. Visual-wise, the car looks like a motorized greenhouse, featuring a solar panel on the roof, and see-through doors.
Rinspeed says it isn’t designed with a single purpose in mind, like Google’s cars, and that Rinderknecht conceived and equipped the vehicle with conceivable options so that it could work in a society “willing to share its goods sensibly”. According to the Swiss designer, the Oasis can be a commuting or shopping car, as well as a “micro delivery vehicle” or a pizza taxi. It even features a code-protected, cooled or heated drawer in the rear to store
And there’s the interior, which comes with the same ambiance of a modern-day family room. It even features two armchairs, a sideboard, a TV – in case the virtual and augmented reality windscreen doesn’t impress you – and a multifunctional steering wheel. The shared pizza-delivering/shopping minibus also features a small green space for growing flowers or – get this – radishes below the windscreen. It isn’t clear if the car can grow something else besides radishes, but let’s not get carried away, even if the company says the Oasis is something new in “the automotive wasteland of uniformity”.
We’ll find out more details about the Rinspeed Oasis concept once it will debut at the 2017 CES in January.
PHOTO GALLERY
