CES would not be CES without some crazy and extravagant vehicle concepts. Fortunately, General Motors brought two.
The automaker exhibited an autonomous luxury egg-shaped vehicle and a single-seat electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft (eVTOL) during its speech on Tuesday. Both vehicles are part of Cadillac’s Halo portfolio and are unlikely to go into production anytime soon – or ever go into production.
Still, the concepts are intended to show Cadillac’s (and, by extension, GM’s) design intentions for future products, as well as serving as an extravagant symbol of the brand’s manufacturing skills.
The AV concept looks like a leather and skin-covered version of many of the autonomous people transport buses we’ve seen on university cities and corporate campuses around the world. It lacks traditional controls, such as a steering wheel and pedals, instead opts for an interior that looks more like a lowered 1970s living room. Michael Simcoe, GM’s VP of Global Design, described it as “a space for a group of friends or family to spend time together on their way to a destination ”.
The vehicle features a vertical light signature, large glass roof and biometric sensors to read passengers’ vital signs and use this data to adjust settings such as temperature, lighting, environmental and even aromatic noise. Other options, such as voice control and gesture recognition, will ensure that these adjustments are made effortlessly (depending on the quality of the technology, of course).
The VTOL concept looks like a more futuristic version of some of the air taxi prototypes that are in development now. Simcoe called this “GM’s first foray into air mobility” – although it is just a design exercise, and it is unclear whether GM really intends to pursue a commercialized version. (A spokesman for the automaker declined to provide any images or provide additional details on both concepts.)
Simcoe said the Cadillac eVTOL aircraft would use a 90 kWh electric motor to power four rotors to allow for vertical takeoff and landing. That’s less battery capacity than other eVTOL startups, like Lilium from Germany, which uses 320 kWh engines to power its five-person jet.
The AV and eVTOL concepts were not the centerpiece of GM’s announcements at CES. This was reserved for the automaker’s new spinoff delivery and logistics business, BrightDrop. But they were a welcome sight at an event that was reduced and reduced as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Congratulations to GM for refusing to let the virus take all the fun out of CES.