Rinspeed to make CES debut with an autonomous auto concept

RinspeedRinspeed’s latest concept auto is taking nearly every futuristic tech gadget and combining it into one automobile.

Guests at CES are invited to touch the Etos, for it incorporates “special innovative surface finishes that are still completely alien to vehicle designers”, though no further detail on those surfaces is provided.

The Rinspeed Ʃtos will debut at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this upcoming January. In addition, it also sports high-technology features, such as augmented navigation and gesture controls. This is where the drone would be perched. Another interesting element of the Etos is that it features a small helipad on the rear decklid capable of supporting a drone which Rinspeed says “could fetch a bouquet of flowers the driver ordered online and even deliver it directly to the lucky recipient”. This drone can be used to film your driving and upload the footage live to the Internet so you can share it with friends, or in the case when you forget something you can send the drone home to pick it up.

The Etos, however, is a vaporware. That drone docks on an integrated landing pad.

“The major and especially the disruptive innovations in future automotive engineering will come from the digital realm”.

While that concept sounds like something we should expect to see in action many years down the road, Swiss manufacturer Rinspeed plans to show us in just a few months.

The company pulls off this dual nature by giving the vehicle an adaptable interior. To put it in Rinspeed’s words, the concept auto is a hybrid which gives drivers the possibility to mix the two driving modes together.

Concept cars are renowned for including features that will never actually appear in your local showroom.

The passengers can then use a infotainment system from Harman Connected vehicle technologies, which is created to operate like a personal assistant in a thinking, courteous and anticipatory manner. Its press release definitely feels short and incomplete, so we anticipate it will have more to say about the Ʃtos concept at the official January reveal in Las Vegas.