Sleeping at the wheel: Volvo’s 360c concept car is a mobile bedroom

With no steering wheel in the cabin, Volvo’s 360c looks set to turn the modern car interior into a mobile bedroom, as well as an office, living room and entertainment space on wheels.

Volvo’s 360c is trying to turn the modern car interior into a bedroom on wheels, a move that shows how driverless cars may someday even compete with air travel.

With carmakers eager to take advantage of the autonomous driving market, it seems like there’s a new, incredibly elaborate concept design for future mobility every week.

Volvo’s new 360c concept is no different, imagining a future where autonomous cars are also living and working spaces for passengers.

With no steering wheel needed in the cabin, the 360c looks set to turn the modern car interior into a mobile bedroom, as well as an office, living room and entertainment space on wheels.

But beyond what you can do in the car, Volvo aims to expand where you can go with it also.

In Volvo’s eyes, the 360c concept can challenge short-haul air travel as a more convenient way for passengers to travel distances of up to 300 kilometres.

“Autonomous drive will allow us to take the next big step in safety, but also open up exciting new business models and allow consumers to spend time in the car doing what they want to do,” says Hakan Samuelsson, President and chief executive of Volvo Cars.

While much of this concept does seem more ambitious than plausible at this point, Volvo is eager to point out that the effect autonomous cars will have on the future is wide open.

“When the Wright brothers took to the skies in 1903, they did not have a clue about what modern air travel would look like,” says Marten Levenstam, senior vice president of corporate strategy at Volvo Cars.

“We do not know what the future of autonomous drive will hold, but it will have a profound impact on how people travel, how we design our cities and how we use infrastructure.”