This might be a little bit too connected.
French automaker Renault is taking the ‘connected car’ to a whole new level with its latest concept car, the Symbioz. Designed as an autonomous electric concept car, the Symbioz is engineered to integrate into your home when not in use, and can be utilised as an extra room.
If you think that’s a little weird, you’re not alone. Reservations aside, the Symbioz concept we see today is a precursor to a car that will come probably around 2040. In fact, Renault is so confident that this concept will make production that they’ve already planned a ‘demo car’ to come about in 2023, to give us a better idea of how the Symbioz could better integrate into our lives.
With Renault’s model home, the company suggests that your Symbioz could be parked inside your house, and used as an extra living space. While it’s there, it can discharge its battery back into the house’s power grid and reduce sharp power usage fluctuations, and can even serve as a back-up power supply should the house get suddenly cut off (though we can only imagine this would result in, after a few hours, a dark house and an immovable car).
As with any future car, the Symbioz is intelligent. By looking at your datebook, the car can adapt itself to optimise power usage and storage. As an example, the car can maintain a minimal charge in its batteries and discharge the rest into the house, should it know that you’re not going anywhere for the next few days (though the company assures us that it will still maintain a ‘reservoir’ of power just in case you want to pop to the shops).
Further, the car allows you to control your home and your appliances from the comfort of your seat. If you’ve gone on a road trip, the car can ensure that blinds are drawn and heating is switched off while you’re away, or preheat the oven when you’re on the way home from work. The concept house that Renault has presented along with the car demonstrates the usability of this system to its fullest extent, and gives us an idea of how the car of the future might shape up.
The Symbioz is (thankfully) pretty good as a car, too. With a 72kWh battery pack feeding two motors at the rear, there’s an astonishing 493kW and 660Nm on offer, capable of rocketing your extra room from rest to 100km/h in less than six seconds. That battery pack can, in theory, be recharged from a high-powered socket from flat to 80% in just 20-minutes, or so the company claims. Renault has provided a caveat of sorts regarding the performance on offer, saying that these figures may change as the car inches towards production, depending on the progress of technology.
Autonomous driving capabilities also means that the Symbioz’s cabin can function as more than a typical car interior. Three driving modes alters the interior to fit the mood: ‘Classic’ imitates a typical cabin, ‘Dynamic’ will see the car and cabin adopt a more hot-hatch-like ambiance, while ‘AD Mode’ sees the controls retract for maximum comfort. In AD mode, there are three interior layouts to choose from, comically named ‘Alone@Home,’ ‘Relax,’ and ‘French Kiss,’ each focusing on relaxation, interaction, or non-driving activities respectively.
At 4.7m in length, 1.98m in width, and 1.38m in height, the Symbioz is a relatively small car, occupying a footprint more compact than most family saloons on our shores. However, without being impeded by an infernal internal-combustion powertrain, the Symbioz is able to offer more space inside, with cabin volume comparable to cars from a class above. The design of the car aims to express elegant individuality while balancing functionality, and doesn’t at all look like that extra space you have at the back of the house.
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