Volvo Presents Luxurious ‘Concept 26’, Previews Autonomous Future

It seems that researching autonomous driving also frees up your imagination to explore car interior possibilities, by removing the necessary “attention span” factor.

The idea is that once you switch over to autonomous mode for your daily commute or on long motorway trips, you’re basically free to do whatever you want with your team, which probably means doing something interactive thanks to your car’s futuristic tech.

Volvo purposely developed the Concept 26 for your daily commute, and even named it accordingly – since 26 minutes is apparently how long it takes people on average to get to work. Yeah, maybe in Sweden?

Concept 26 is based around a new patented seat design that cradles the driver as the car switches between its three modes: Drive, Create and Relax. If the driver wants the car to do all the work, the steering wheel retracts, the seat reclines and a surprisingly large display emerges from the dashboard. Perfect for catching up on your favorite shows, right?

Robin Page, VP of Interior Design at Volvo says that “it’s all about people. Our research clearly shows that some people will want to use their commuting time creatively when they have full autonomous drive available, while others will want to just sit back and relax, watch online media or listen to music. Autonomous drive will make all of this possible. This is what Concept 26 has captured by reimagining the entire car experience.”

That’s something that even the purest of purists have to admit to – nobody appreciates wasting time in bumper to bumper traffic, and we’re not just talking about that 26 minute nonsense. In some cities, you can easily spend a whole hour in traffic on your way to or from work.

This concept doesn’t just reflect the way Volvo views autonomous driving, but also opens up a lot of possibilities for the entire industry to explore. Just think about how many new things could make sense on a car if you took the “need to pay attention to the road” out of the equation. It would basically become a mobile office or a very high-tech home cinema for the road.

Thankfully, Volvo also wants to focus on quality and luxury, which is probably fine by everyone.