The Audi urbansphere is an upcoming concept car designed for high-traffic Chinese megacities. It has similar applications in other busy metropolitans and traffic-dense urban areas. The concept offers a large interior space, more than any other Audi vehicle ever. It also offers intelligent features that meet the demands of Chinese customers. For the first time, prospects in China could participate in the development process through something called “co-creation”. This resulted in the unique, lounge-like interior of the urbansphere. The new spacious concept acts as an additional working or living space for passengers. Based on level 4 autonomous vehicle technology, you won’t find a steering wheel, any pedals, or even a display cluster inside the urbanshpere.
The Three Audi “Sphere” Series Concepts
Audi has created three concept cars that represent its vision of premium mobility of tomorrow. The first is the skysphere, an electric, self-driving roadster concept unveiled in August 2021. The second is the grandshpere, a large luxury sedan concept unveiled at the IAA 2021. The latest is the urbansphere, and all these sphere series concepts are based on an autonomous, self-driving technology, that Audi expects to deliver before 2030.
Urbansphere’s Large Interior
As the largest of the three-sphere concept cars, the urbanshpere has a huge 4-seat interior space measuring 18 feet in length, 6.6 feet in width, and 5.8 feet in height. The wheelbase is over 11 feet or 3.4 meters, to be precise.
Unlike most vehicles that prioritize the number of seats, storage space, and utility, this concept focuses on delivering a comfortable, spacious experience for the passenger derived from holistic thinking. It offers a highly-personalized experience with plenty of options for passengers. A wide range of integrated digital services creates a complete ecosystem of services. Things like online shopping, communications, dinner reservations, etc., are all possible, along with autonomous features like passenger pick-up, finding parking, and charging.
The infotainment is highly customized and versatile, with integration options and onboard media services. The swivel seats can turn in to face other passengers during conversations, while privacy is offered through a privacy screen in the headrest if a passenger desires seclusion.
There are separate audio zones for passengers and separate monitors behind the front seats for backseat passengers. A large, transparent OLED “cinema” screen also pivots from the roof. The steering wheel, pedals, and display cluster can also hide for a more spacious interior.
Inside-Out Architecture
The design, engineering, technology, and overall architecture of the urbansphere start from the interior and how the passenger experiences the “sphere” on the road. This changes the entire design process and results in a work of art that takes inspiration from the interior and passenger’s experience to guide every other aspect of development. Even the doors use a counter-hinge mechanism to eliminate the B-pillar, thus fully opening the urbansphere interior to passengers as they enter. The four seats swivel out, and light projections on the ground act as a red carpet to welcome passengers.
More Than A Car
These are just a few unique and profound details about the interior of the Audi urbansphere. There are plenty of other things like fully reclined seats, stress detection, MMI touchless response, vehicle fast-charging, air suspension, eye-tracking, gesture control, voice control, VR glasses, a Holoride system, hornbeam veneers, and sustainable material use like bamboo and recycled polyamide.
The concept offers profound luxury and comfort, with a calm sense of interior through details like lack of black screens, quality wood and wool materials, soft tones, and lighting. The urbansphere is more than a car. It is a highly personalized and versatile experience on the road that caters to every passenger’s need as they go from A to B.