The vehicle interior of the future

The three activ­i­ties of dri­ving, work­ing and relax­ing are merg­ing in the dig­i­tal­ly con­nect­ed and sus­tain­able mobil­i­ty of the future. Con­ti­nen­tal has devel­oped the near­ly per­fect vehi­cle inte­ri­or for this pur­pose. Vis­i­tors to the IAA Mobil­i­ty in Munich can expe­ri­ence the future of the inte­ri­or in the AMBIENC3. Every­thing is designed and con­ceived from a sin­gle mold: chic, light­weight and robust sur­faces for floors, walls and ceil­ings, for seats, couch­es and tables. Nat­ur­al, sub­tle and bright col­ors. Warm, well-defined light­ing effects. Unob­tru­sive sounds…

In Con­ti­nen­tal’s new con­cept car, the dri­ving, work­ing and relax­ing expe­ri­ence come togeth­er in a 3rd Space, a third room that unites all activ­i­ties. The vehi­cle is full of new sur­face solu­tions made of inno­v­a­tive and sus­tain­able mate­ri­als. Speak­ing of sus­tain­abil­i­ty: Fol­low­ing the upcy­cling trend, the AMBIENC3 is based on the VW T2 Bul­li, an emo­tion­al­ly charged vehi­cle. This is how retro meets the future.

“With the AMBIENC3, we are com­bin­ing a glob­al­ly known auto­mo­tive icon with new, excit­ing sur­faces and pio­neer­ing tech­nolo­gies of the future, whose fea­tures sup­port dri­ving, work­ing and relax­ing in the best pos­si­ble way and dis­tin­guish them from one anoth­er through col­or, design and mate­r­i­al. At AMBIENC3, we show­case our exper­tise in sus­tain­abil­i­ty, design, func­tion­al­i­ty, 3rd Space and cus­tomer ori­en­ta­tion. This is how we bring togeth­er key dri­vers for the future of mobile interiors.”

- Ralf Imbery, Head of Inno­va­tion, Trans­for­ma­tion and Design

Focus on sustainability

The com­pa­ny has focused on nat­ur­al and renew­able raw mate­ri­als as well as recy­cled and reprocessed mate­ri­als in its sur­face devel­op­ment. And with­out com­pro­mis­ing on qual­i­ty: “In the AMBIENC3, occu­pants can breathe freely. This is ensured by low-emis­sion and low-emis­sion mate­ri­als. Light­weight sur­faces also help save vehi­cle weight. This reduces ener­gy con­sump­tion, thus also CO2 emis­sions, and increas­es the range of elec­tric vehi­cles,” empha­sizes Imbery.

Nat­ur­al, sub­tle and light col­ors and gen­tly flow­ing shapes char­ac­ter­ize the inte­ri­or of the AMBIENC3, mak­ing it both home­ly and mod­ern. The inte­ri­or sup­ports moti­va­tion when work­ing as well as inspi­ra­tion when relax­ing. You won’t find any but­tons or switch­es here. The func­tions in the AMBIENC3 are always intu­itive­ly at hand, but with­out per­ma­nent­ly vis­i­ble con­trols. The so-called Shy Tech­nol­o­gy makes it pos­si­ble: The func­tions are invis­i­ble at first glance in the sur­face in the off mode.

Design and function go hand in hand

Oth­er inno­v­a­tive high­lights in the con­cept car include the dif­fer­ent atmos­phere-cre­at­ing light and sound con­cept and heat­able mate­ri­als. Pro­duced by func­tion­al pres­sure, they gen­er­ate heat in sec­onds. Oth­er sur­faces used in the AMBIENC3 are char­ac­ter­ized by spe­cial prop­er­ties such as opti­mized soil­ing behav­ior, max­i­mum abra­sion resis­tance and even self-heal­ing in the event of damage.

Con­ti­nen­tal is also tak­ing account of the mega­trend toward autonomous dri­ving with the AMBIENC3: With ful­ly auto­mat­ed dri­ving at the lat­est, we will use our time in the car for pur­pos­es oth­er than steer­ing, accel­er­at­ing or brak­ing. That’s why, in addi­tion to the dri­ving zone, the new con­cept car also has a work­ing and relax­ation zone, each with a dif­fer­ent design and mate­r­i­al con­cept. And since the focus is on the inside, the sur­faces used become increas­ing­ly impor­tant. This ulti­mate­ly leads to an enhance­ment of the inte­ri­or; the eye should be offered some­thing and the sur­faces should also be expe­ri­enced hap­ti­cal­ly. The var­i­ous activ­i­ties are sup­port­ed by mood func­tions such as light and sound. 3rd Space is the name of the under­ly­ing con­cept, accord­ing to which the liv­ing area and office merge in the vehicle.

Customized solutions, innovative technologies

The AMBIENC3 sets new stan­dards, not least in terms of cus­tomer ori­en­ta­tion. With solu­tions and sur­faces that can be cus­tomized using dig­i­tal print­ing, the com­pa­ny shows automak­ers numer­ous ways of tai­lor­ing vehi­cles to the indi­vid­ual needs of their cus­tomers and enhanc­ing the inte­ri­or with new, sur­pris­ing func­tions and their networking.

Equipped with effi­cient tech­nolo­gies, the sur­faces in AMBIENC3 stand out as true all-rounders. For exam­ple, staynu tech­nol­o­gy makes sur­faces more dirt-resis­tant, eas­i­er to clean and more robust than ever before. Staynu stands for “stay new,” which means that the mate­r­i­al is able to with­stand the effects of dirt and wear. The tech­nol­o­gy keeps the mate­r­i­al look­ing new for longer. The pro­tect­ed mate­r­i­al is used for the dri­ver’s seat of the AMBIENC3. It takes the sting out of stains and is con­sid­ered a durable, cost-effec­tive and envi­ron­men­tal­ly friend­ly material.

Oth­er sur­faces in the AMBIENC3 use laif tech­nol­o­gy, which is char­ac­ter­ized by breatha­bil­i­ty, i.e. per­me­abil­i­ty to air and water vapor, and par­tic­u­lar soft­ness. A pleas­ant side effect of this new tech­nol­o­gy: the breath­able sur­face pro­vides pas­sive cli­mate reg­u­la­tion. With the look and feel of real leather, sur­faces with laif tech­nol­o­gy are an excel­lent alter­na­tive for which no ani­mal has to lose its life.

Leading the way in mobility for 150 years

“Behind the new con­cept vehi­cle is an impres­sive team effort,” explains Imbery. “In addi­tion to pio­neer­ing sur­faces, inno­v­a­tive tech­nolo­gies and solu­tions can also be found in the con­cept vehi­cle, for exam­ple the Ac2ated Sound speak­er­less audio sys­tem, the ProViu 360 cam­era sys­tem for greater safe­ty on the road, the pho­to­volta­ic charg­er on the vehi­cle roof for sus­tain­able ener­gy gen­er­a­tion, an intel­li­gent glass con­trol sys­tem, the eTravel.Companion or the DAB radio with USB and Blue­tooth connectivity.”

So not only does the AMBIENC3 stand for tra­di­tion and the future, but so does Con­ti­nen­tal. After all, its heart has been beat­ing for mobil­i­ty for 150 years — and it will con­tin­ue to do so. “The fact is: the AMBIENC3 has to be expe­ri­enced, felt, wit­nessed,” sums up Imbery. That’s why Con­ti­nen­tal is invit­ing all vis­i­tors to the IAA Mobil­i­ty in Munich from Sep­tem­ber 7 to 12, 2021, to step inside the AMBIENC3 — and get to know the future of mobile inte­ri­ors today. The mul­ti­me­dia AMBIENC3 web por­tal also pro­vides a com­pre­hen­sive overview of the new con­cept and all the details.