LOS ANGELES — Cars that can truly drive themselves without a human are still years away, but Hyundai Motor Company is already planning for a future when a car isn’t just a way to get from point A to point B. It’s a living space on wheels. During the LA Auto Show Wednesday, the Korean automaker unveiled its SEVEN concept car — a zero-emissions SUV, or SUEV as the company refers to its futuristic vehicle.
Part of Hyundai’s battery electric Ioniq vehicle line, the SEVEN boasts swiveling “furniture-like seats” and a “premium lounge experience” rather than traditional row-based seating. Throw open the side doors, and you enter into a space that looks more like a Herman Miller showroom, with a minimalist yet sculptured driver’s seat, an ottoman in the place where a second front-seat passenger would normally be situated and banquette seating in the back.
Because the car is designed to drive itself, the dashboard is set up to accommodate home appliances, and the control stick that would put the car in gear if driven by an actual human retracts out of the way.
Presuming a person would be able to relax in such a situation, or perhaps in recognition that she might need some inducement, the cabin is awash in soothing ambient light more akin to a living room. Adding to that at-home feeling: a built-in mini-fridge and shoe compartments, in case passengers are inspired to go barefoot or just run their toes through the low-pile continuous carpet.
“SEVEN dares to break free from the beaten path,” Hyundai Global Design Senior Vice President SangYup Lee said. “SEVEN paves the way forward for what an SUV needs to become in the EV era … with a new dimension of space that cares for its passengers as a family living space.”