Interiors reconceived for the self-driving era

FRANKFURT -- When automakers introduce self-driving vehicles over the next decade, drivers may feel like Captain Kirk on the starship Enterprise.

All controls will be mounted on the driver's armrest. No dashboard knobs and buttons, no center-console controls and perhaps not even a storage bin between the front seats.

At last week's Frankfurt auto show, two global seat makers -- Adient and Faurecia -- each unveiled cockpit concepts for self-driving cars, and the visions indicate an emerging consensus about the way drivers will control their vehicles.

They also agree that suppliers will have to reinvent virtually every major component in the cockpit, including the steering wheel, climate control, airbags and audio system.

To do that, the two have formed rival alliances.

Faurecia, the world's third-largest seat maker, is working with ZF to design airbags and seat belts. Adient, the No. 1 global seat supplier, has formed partnerships with Yanfeng and Autoliv.

"We would not have been able to do this alone," Faurecia CEO Patrick Koller said during a press conference last week. "We have to think about ecosystems."

At the show, Faurecia revealed the first fruits of its partnership with ZF: a driver's seat called the Advanced Versatile Structure.

Since the front seats can swivel and retract, the seat belts are anchored to the seats rather than the B-pillars. Airbags are embedded on each side of the seats, and the seat backs house rainbow-shaped bags for the rear passengers.

For frontal protection, automakers likely would add a curtain that deploys from the roof, plus two-stage airbags in the dash. After an in-cabin camera pinpoints the front passengers' positions, the two-stage airbags would deploy accordingly.

The result: a protective cocoon for each occupant.

The rival alliances are promoting their ability to design complete interiors. But will automakers go for it?

Koller says Chinese automakers, Silicon Valley startups and other automotive newcomers will be eager to hand off interior integration to suppliers.

Chung isn't so sure. He says automakers may prefer a conventional "buffet" strategy, picking and choosing components from a variety of vendors.

But Uber, Lyft and other ride-hailing fleets could upset industry tradition, said analyst Sam Abuelsamid of Navigant, a consulting firm based in Chicago.

Because those vehicles will be in constant use, "items like seats, flooring and other interior components will wear out faster and need to be swapped out," Abuelsamid said via email.

Moreover, fleet owners might prefer removable interiors that could be swapped out to optimize the vehicle for taxi service, delivery vans, mobile offices or even party wagons.

"The possibilities are limitless," said Abuelsamid, "and they are definitely enabled by a supplier that can handle the integration."

One-stop shopping would not necessarily mean that Faurecia's alliance would produce all components, said ZF chief Stefan Sommer during a briefing with reporters last week. But the alliance could more easily optimize a vehicle's interior before its design is frozen.

Given the complexity of self- driving vehicles, that may be an attractive proposition.

Said Sommer: "That's clearly the way we want to go."