Bentley previews future design direction with autonomous limo

Bentley has revealed how its luxury saloon might look in the year 2036, incorporating autonomous driving technology, components made via 3D printing and even a holographic butler to cater to the needs of passengers.

The image shows the kind of interior a car from the luxury, chauffeur-driven end of the manufacturer’s portfolio, possibly a Mulsanne, might have two decades from now.

The lounge-style rear cabin features two sofa-like seats positioned opposite each other and infotainment screens made from flexible, 0.5mm-thick material mounted to the side panels. It is the work of Bentley’s 50-strong design team led by Stefan Sielaff, who joined the company as director of design last July.

“This explains how the interior of Bentleys has to develop and in particular how the luxury experience has to develop in the future,” said Sielaff.

“We are pushing with materials and with screens. The super-thin screen is still experimental but it is only as thick as a piece of paper and you can bend it. The screens of the future won’t be straight pieces of glass, instead they will be integrated into the materials. The luxury customer is not sitting in front of a shoebox all the time.

“With this image we are talking about the luxury atmosphere in our cars. You could imagine that this is the interior of an autonomous Bentley, even though many of our customers already do not drive themselves because they have chauffeurs.”

The holographic butler represents “somebody you can talk to, it’s not just a machine” to offer Bentley customers a more personalised experience. “This is also part of luxury and design in the future. This is what we have to combine.”

In addition to the 2036 vision of a luxury interior, Sielaff hinted at some aspects of design that are closer to production reality and will “take Bentley design into the future”. Indeed, some cues could be incorporated into the design of upcoming cars, such as the next Continental, which is currently in development ahead of an anticipated launch in 2017.

Bentley’s future designs will continue to emphasise the brand’s British roots via what Sielaff refers to as a “fusion of extremes”, with the sporting models at one end of the spectrum and luxury models at the other.

Bentley is plotting new cars in its portfolio; company boss Wolfgang Dürheimer recently told Autocar that he would like to see as many as seven model lines, with prospective future offerings, such as a Bentayga-derived sports SUV and the production version of the EXP 10 Speed 6 coupé in the final stages of consideration.

Sielaff said the “overall ratio between performance and luxury will get even wider. Our flagships will get even more luxurious on the one hand and even more sporty on the other.”