Holographic ‘driver’ could be the future for the luxury car brand, although Bentley is not looking to ditch the driver in a hurry.

REMEMBER Johnny Cab, the autonomous taxi in the original Total Recall film? Somebody at Bentley clearly does, with this sketch hinting at the brand’s far distant autonomous future clearly channelling some of the same thinking, only with face-to-face seating and for billionaires.

It is, the company admits, done for fun rather than as evidence of any serious production attempt, being shown by newly arrived design director Stefan Sielaff during a presentation on the future of Bentley design. But still, it’s proof the company is considering how the top-end luxury market will respond to self-driving cars.

“We have had the equivalent of autonomous cars for the last 100 years in Bentley, from the point of view of the rear seat passenger who had a driver,” he explained, “the way of living is going to change dramatically in the next 20 years, if you look at the world population three quarters will live in megacities. I’m pretty sure that not everybody will sit in public transport, there is always the demand – especially for luxury customers – to have a private sphere, their own private vehicle.”

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“Luxury is always related to service,” Sielaff said, “people don’t like the idea of just talking to a hidden microphone, we are thinking of how to personalise the next generation of communication in different ways and this could be one of them.”