To further drive the future of connected mobility, Volkswagen has today surprised us with the reveal of its self-driving concept vehicle called Sedric. The said concept has simply been named after “self-driving cars” and is the first fully-autonomous electric vehicle that does not require any human interaction, except for summoning it at the push of a button.
This concept car, Sedric, was today unveiled on stage at the Geneva Auto Show. It is based on Volkswagen’s future sustainable mobility program “Together – Strategy 2025” and has been designed from scratch based on it. This car is currently just a concept and does not come with any steering wheel or pedals for the human driver. This is because Sedric has been created for level 5 autonomous driving, where the need for a human driver is eliminated.
Talking about the self-driving concept, Matthias Müller, CEO of the Volkswagen Group said,
We are convinced that fully-automated vehicles will make life in our cities better, more eco-friendly and above all safer. Sedric gives the first concrete foretaste of that today. Sedric is a trailblazer and idea platform for autonomous driving. Many elements and functions of this concept car will reappear in vehicles from our brands in the coming years.
Further, Volkswagen has designed this concept vehicle keeping the idea of ride-sharing in mind. Thus, your interaction with the Sedric has been limited to the controller, which allows you to summon the car at the press of a fancy button. It uncomplicates the process of being able to travel by providing you with a button and a ring. The button summons a vehicle and the ring displays Sedric’s arrival time using colored light and vibration signals. It will, thus, be extremely helpful for the visually impaired as well.
This has been described in the official release as under:
The Button is the link between the user and Sedric. It is the key to a completely new mobility experience. This is because a single touch of the button guarantees mobility for everyone, at any time, and at any location.
Sedric, the concept car which looks like a concept from space movies, has been collectively developed by the Future Center Europe of the Volkswagen Group in Potsdam and Volkswagen Group Research in Wolfsburg. It has further been said to be developed to become a friendly companion for most of your journeys, courtesy of its intuitive user experience and sustainable operations.
As stated before, you only interact with the car using the fancy button device as everything else is automated — even the doors to this four-seater open automatically on reaching the destination. The inside of Sedric comes integrated with a voice-activated AI assistant, which can talk to you about the destination, how to get there, the driving time, the current traffic situation. You can even enjoy video content on the OLED windscreen, which also doubles as a communication tool. This further takes the concept another step closer to futuristic vehicles shown in movies.
Finally, for anyone looking to pick up one of these futuristic pod-like vehicles, you’re out of luck as they’re currently concepts. The one shown on stage at the event might be the only prototype developed by Volkswagen for Sedric. But, it will now act as a basic pattern for upcoming sustainable mobility innovations from the German automaker. This has been described in the official release in an unusual manner:
Sedric is the pioneer, the ideas platform for autonomous driving in the Volkswagen Group. And it is the ‘Father’ of numerous concepts for a new form of individual mobility. Soon Sedric will also get ‘children’ and ‘grandchildren’ with the Group’s various brands.
They will be created in typical designs for the brands and will feature tailor-made and customer-specific characteristics for equipment.
