{"id":13743,"date":"2021-11-19T09:04:01","date_gmt":"2021-11-19T14:04:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/autosector.com\/auto\/?p=13743"},"modified":"2021-11-19T09:04:01","modified_gmt":"2021-11-19T14:04:01","slug":"1134217_buick-previews-a-self-driving-pod-tailored-for-the-chinese-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=13743","title":{"rendered":"Buick previews a self-driving pod tailored for the Chinese market"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Every now and then you get a car company imagining what it&#8217;s products might be like in a future where driving, at least by a human, is no longer necessary.<\/p>\n<p>The latest is Buick which on Friday at Auto Guangzhou 2021 unveiled the Smart Pod concept.<\/p>\n<p>The concept is a self-driving minivan based on General Motors&#8217; Ultium dedicated electric-vehicle platform, and Buick envisions it being used not only for transport but also as a private space to relax, entertain friends, or catch up on work.<\/p>\n<p>There are no controls for the driver. Instead, the front of the cabin features a seat that can be folded down to form a table. Behind this is a 50-inch screen that can also tuck down when not in use. At the rear of the cabin is a pair of individual reclining seats, plus a section to hold a tea set. We&#8217;re told the concept also features an AI-enabled virtual assistant.<\/p>\n<div class=\"hgmLayout hgmLayout2x2\">\n<div class=\"image_wrapper first_wrapper\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" name=\"tccimg_100816087_m\" title=\"Buick Smart Pod concept\" src=\"data:image\/png;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAD\/ACwAAAAAAQABAAACADs=\" alt=\"Buick Smart Pod concept\" width=\"640\" height=\"426\" class=\"first_image lazy\" data-width=\"1024\" data-height=\"682\" data-url=\"https:\/\/images.hgmsites.net\/lrg\/buick-smart-pod-concept_100816087_l.jpg\" data-src-h=\"https:\/\/images.hgmsites.net\/hug\/buick-smart-pod-concept_100816087_h.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/images.hgmsites.net\/lrg\/buick-smart-pod-concept_100816087_l.jpg\" data-src-l=\"https:\/\/images.hgmsites.net\/lrg\/buick-smart-pod-concept_100816087_l.jpg\" data-src-m=\"https:\/\/images.hgmsites.net\/med\/buick-smart-pod-concept_100816087_m.jpg\" data-src-s=\"https:\/\/images.hgmsites.net\/sml\/buick-smart-pod-concept_100816087_s.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Buick Smart Pod concept<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"image_wrapper\"><img decoding=\"async\" name=\"tccimg_100816083_m\" title=\"Buick Smart Pod concept\" src=\"data:image\/png;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAD\/ACwAAAAAAQABAAACADs=\" alt=\"Buick Smart Pod concept\" width=\"640\" height=\"426\" data-width=\"1024\" data-height=\"682\" data-url=\"https:\/\/images.hgmsites.net\/lrg\/buick-smart-pod-concept_100816083_l.jpg\" data-src-h=\"https:\/\/images.hgmsites.net\/hug\/buick-smart-pod-concept_100816083_h.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/images.hgmsites.net\/lrg\/buick-smart-pod-concept_100816083_l.jpg\" data-src-l=\"https:\/\/images.hgmsites.net\/lrg\/buick-smart-pod-concept_100816083_l.jpg\" data-src-m=\"https:\/\/images.hgmsites.net\/med\/buick-smart-pod-concept_100816083_m.jpg\" data-src-s=\"https:\/\/images.hgmsites.net\/sml\/buick-smart-pod-concept_100816083_s.jpg\" class=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Buick Smart Pod concept<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>A cool element of the design are the exterior lights. These feature micro-LEDs that are used to make emotive patterns. The concept&#8217;s glass lattice roof also makes the interior an exciting place to be.<\/p>\n<p>Unlike some of the other self-driving pod concepts we&#8217;ve seen over the years, something like the Buick Smart Pod may actually reach production in the not too distant future. GM&#8217;s self-driving technology startup Cruise is developing its own self-driving pod based on the Ultium platform. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorauthority.com\/news\/1126828_cruise-origin-previews-a-future-that-takes-the-driver-out-of-electric-ride-hailing\">Known as the Cruise Origin<\/a>, it&#8217;s due to go into limited service here in the U.S. in the coming years. It&#8217;s not hard to imagine a Buick pod controlled by Cruise&#8217;s self-driving system being developed for China, Buick&#8217;s biggest market.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to the Smart Pod, Buick also used the Guangzhou auto show for the debut of a concept previewing the design of the next-generation version of the Chinese-market GL8 minivan.<\/p>\n<p>For more Guangzhou auto show news, head to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorauthority.com\/news\/guangzhou-auto-show\">our dedicated hub<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Every now and then you get a car company imagining what it&#8217;s products might be like in a future where driving, at least by a human, is no longer necessary. The latest is Buick which on Friday at Auto Guangzhou 2021 unveiled the Smart Pod concept. The concept is a self-driving minivan based on General [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8313,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-e-cars"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13743\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}