Photo: Rinspeed
This year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas hosted, among a million other innovative technology ideas, the SNAP concept dreamed up by Swiss think tank Rinspeed. Next week, Europeans will get a chance to see a variant of it called microSNAP at the Geneva Motor Show.
The SNAP concept is not something we’ve never seen before: a working chassis, on top of which various car bodies can be snapped in place, to serve whatever purpose owners have in mind for the vehicle. What we haven't seen yet is how the swap can be done.
Rinspeed will fix that, and will show how the process works with the help of a fully automated robot station that mates chassis and bodies.
At the event, Rinspeed will also bring a scaled-down version of the SNAP called microSNAP, a vehicle with the dimensions of a Renault Twizy and powered by a 48-volt traction motor. The configuration to be shown in Geneva is one that supports two passengers.
microSNAP uses 5G telematics for autonomous driving, multi-stage authentication (including by using an iris scanner) for instant personalization, and Bixby, Alexa, Cortana or Siri integration for infotainment needs. A curved 49-inch LED screen covering the entire width of the machine acts as a visual interface.
Rinspeed says one of the reasons it designed the concept is the need to eliminate “delivery vehicles that serve customers in sequence like pearls on a string“ and replace them with small autonomous machines that swarm carrying their goods.
“Customers increasingly want prompt deliveries, and many passengers are unwilling to use shared taxis, which have to take time-consuming detours by design,” said in a statement Frank Rinderknecht, Rinspeed top executive.
The microSNAP is a collaborative effort, with a great number of companies contributing parts and expertise to the project. The full details on how the microSNAP was made and what it is supposed to do can be found in the document attached below.
Rinspeed will fix that, and will show how the process works with the help of a fully automated robot station that mates chassis and bodies.
At the event, Rinspeed will also bring a scaled-down version of the SNAP called microSNAP, a vehicle with the dimensions of a Renault Twizy and powered by a 48-volt traction motor. The configuration to be shown in Geneva is one that supports two passengers.
microSNAP uses 5G telematics for autonomous driving, multi-stage authentication (including by using an iris scanner) for instant personalization, and Bixby, Alexa, Cortana or Siri integration for infotainment needs. A curved 49-inch LED screen covering the entire width of the machine acts as a visual interface.
Rinspeed says one of the reasons it designed the concept is the need to eliminate “delivery vehicles that serve customers in sequence like pearls on a string“ and replace them with small autonomous machines that swarm carrying their goods.
“Customers increasingly want prompt deliveries, and many passengers are unwilling to use shared taxis, which have to take time-consuming detours by design,” said in a statement Frank Rinderknecht, Rinspeed top executive.
The microSNAP is a collaborative effort, with a great number of companies contributing parts and expertise to the project. The full details on how the microSNAP was made and what it is supposed to do can be found in the document attached below.
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