This is the Chrysler Portal, an electric vehicle concept set to be unveiled at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. Built to compliment the new-age lifestyle of millennials, the concept is joint project between the FCA User Experience (UX) team and an internal UX Tiger team from the Panasonic Automotive Advanced Engineering.
The futuristic styling on the exterior features plenty of over-the-top cues as you can tell, but also accommodates the car’s various cameras, radar, LiDAR, and ultrasonic sensors. The large window sections allow plenty of natural light to flood the cabin, and sliding doors open to provide an aperture into the seven-seat vehicle.
Once inside, occupants are surrounded by technology beginning with a facial recognition feature that is able to identify and set up the car (music, lighting, vehicle temperature, heated or cooled seats) according to pre-set user profiles.
To interact with the car’s systems, there’s a voice biometric interface that works with the standard touchscreen on the dash. With advanced speech software capable of recognising who is speaking at any time, users can order the car to do a variety of things from playing tailored playlists to unlocking and opening the doors as you approach it.
Social media is of significant focus here, so to share content between passengers “only requires a simple swipe to the right,” as Chrysler puts it. Found an interesting video? Share it via the “community display screen” mounted on the headliner so the second- and third-row passengers get to see it too.
If that isn’t enough, the system will even use predictive intelligence to ensure the group you are travelling with uses the best route, eats at a restaurant and plays media that everyone can enjoy. When you do arrive at the destination, interior and exterior cameras can capture the moment with a selfie, which is then automatically sent to everyone’s personal device, ready to be shared.
As a car, the Portal is powered by a 100 kWh lithium-ion battery pack that is located within its 3,002 mm-inch wheelbase. It’ll provide up to 402 km of range, and with fast-charging technology, a 20-minute plug in is all that’s needed for up to 241 km of range.
Chrysler also installed an AMOLED display that spans the length of the dashboard that is divided into three zones of information. The leftmost section shows traditional vehicle information, such as speed, while the middle section displays an all-round view of what’s around the Portal. The third section is for media sharing, as well as the current status of passengers, such as their seat temperature and music or videos being played and a view of them.
The Portal is also capable of SAE Level 3 autonomous driving, which isn’t a totally hands-free time behind the wheel, but should make long journeys a little less tiring. It even comes with Vehicle-to-X (V2X) communication that enables the vehicle to “talk” with the public infrastructure, Internet, and other vehicles via an array of sensors, similar to Audi’s Traffic Light Information.
