This is the vision for the future of autonomous motoring from the generally quite insane Swiss tuning house of Rinspeed.
Based on a BMW i3, this is the Budii, a robot car that can switch seamlessly between left- and right-hand-drive. The standard steering column has been done away with and the car now uses a steer-by-wire system. That means that the electronics can seamlessly shunt the steering wheel from one side of the car to the other, depending on who wants to drive. Normally, the wheel folds away into the centre of the dash, where it can also be used as a tray or a tablet holder. Honestly, this is real.
The car also has air suspension, which can vary the ride height by up to 100mm, and it uses a pop-up laser scanner to monitor the road ahead. There are even fold out, fan-like shades to give you more privacy on the inside when the electronics are driving the car. Quite what you need privacy for is up to you, of course... Rinspeed has even had a go at the doors, fitting them with electric motors so that they open and close at the touch of a button, or from a smartphone app.
Referring to a joint study with consulting firm EY, Rinspeed's boss Frank Rinderknecht puts it as follows: "The autonomously driving car will require more than solving technical problems and legal issues in the next two decades. We not only have to redefine the interaction of man and machine, but must also raise questions about responsibility, tolerances and expectations."
According to Rinderknecht, autonomous driving will undoubtedly offer the opportunity to make traffic more people-friendly and reduce the number of traffic accidents worldwide. "But even the best technology will not be perfect, albeit less prone to error than humans. That is something we will have to accept," says the boss of the Swiss powerhouse of automotive ideas Rinspeed. "We should not develop a blind, but rather a healthy trust in the new capabilities of the hardware and software. In the future, cars will do just as we do: they will keep learning every day, and as a result will get better and better at mastering the complex challenges of modern-day private transport."