NISSAN iMX Electric Concept Car, Nissan Intelligent Mobility, TOKYO MOTOR SHOW 2017

Nissan’s IMx electric concept car wants to get to know you
Nissan’s latest electric vehicle concept aims for crossover appeal, with a design that goes well beyond the Nissan Leaf in terms of aggressive styling and visual appeal. The IMx also focuses on self-driving technologies, and on learning a user’s preferences and providing them with a wraparound informatics display that incorporates its learnings about its user.

The IMx design has been conceived to communicate its electric underpinnings on the outside, and it’s a look that was conceived based on taking inspiration from Japanese swords, and also from ‘washi,’ or Japanese paper that’s made for subtly and durability with a painstaking multi-step creation process.

It’s definitely an attractive car, with a full glass roof and sleek narrow headlights, and an interior with wood trim that lends to the sense of open interior space made possible by the extra room made available through the use of the electric drivetrain. The suicide doors and lack of a B pillar further add to that sense of expansive, usable space.

The Nissan IMx also has a range of smart features on board, including the ability to engage Nissan’s self-driving ProPILOT system, which takes over driving duties. This includes some neat additional features like a retracting steering wheel and brake and gas pedal, which descend into the dashboard and the floor respectively to provide more room for the driver to relax comfortably.

Nissan’s latest concept car also features a wraparound display that provides live information around the driver and passengers in the cockpit, just below the windshield and passenger windows. The screen will provide info like navigation data, as well as suggestions about what they might like to do, extrapolating that information based on past trip data.

Nissan told me that it’s working with partners on its in-vehicle smart assistant, but it wouldn’t articulate which partners it’s using specifically. It also hinted that the assistant might be able to follow the driver beyond the vehicle throughout their daily life.

The car’s interface use cameras placed throughout the vehicle and artificial intelligence to interpret user commands and anticipate their needs, with the intent of minimizing manual controls and other potential distractions.

Nissan says that while this is just a concept, it’s still intended to reflect the actual direction of their efforts around ‘Intelligent Mobility’ and its productization.

Even if the new Nissan IMx concept didn’t turn out to be a hotly desired follow-up to the beloved IDx concepts from 2013, the IMx does give us a look at the future of Nissan’s SUV design. According to a report from Auto Express, there’s a good chance the concept’s design will influence the next Nissan Qashqai, known on our shores as the Rogue Sport.

Auto Express talked to Nissan senior vice president of global design Alfonso Albaisa, who denied the IMx previews what we will see on the next Juke. He told AE the IMx is just a design study, but he emphasized the concept is an entire segment size larger than the compact Juke. Timing is also key. According to Albaisa, IMx looks no further than three years into the future, likely coinciding with the Qashqai’s lifecycle.

Albasia admits the dramatic creases and slashes present on the IMx would be quieted and smoothed out for production, but the concept’s airy, open interior could be a big influence on future cars, with Nissan becoming “more cabin-centric” with later models. As the automaker continues to develop its EV lineup, the method of interior packaging will change, and the IMx will stand as a more realistic design.

SOURCE: [ Ссылка ]

свернуть