Volvo unveils Polestar Precept concept car with Android

Volvo’s sub-brand Polestar announced a new concept car on Tuesday: the Precept. Instead of focusing on crazy performance numbers, Polestar  instead chose to show off its vision for sustainability. 

The Polestar Precept is a four-door, electric sedan with a distinctively sporty look, but the company did not share any figures with regards to its power, acceleration, range, or battery capacity. 

We did learn a lot about how Volvo tried to reduce the car’s environmental impact. That includes seat surfaces 3D-knitted from recycled PET bottles, bolsters and headrests made from recycled cork vinyl, and carpets made from reclaimed fishing nets. 

The interior panels and seatbacks are made from flax-based composite materials, which Volvo claims offer a 50 percent savings in weight, and up to 80 percent reduction of plastic waste.

Inside, the Precept has a vertically oriented, 15-inch touch screen, as well as a 12.5-inch driver’s display. The car’s infotainment system is powered by Android and includes a dynamic digital interface with proximity sensors and eye tracking that adjusts the content of the screens depending on where the driver is looking. 

Note that the Polestar 2 electric car, which is scheduled to hit the market later this year, is the first to include Google’s native dashboard. But while differences between the two systems are hard to spot at this point, the level of customization and personalization appears to be a notch higher in the Precept.

Other details worth mentioning are dual radar sensors and a high-definition camera housed in what would traditionally be the car’s front grille, a lidar sensor on top of the car’s glass roof, camera-based side mirrors, and a digital screen connected to a wide-angle camera at the rear of the car instead of the traditional rear-view mirror.

Polestar will showcase the Precept at the Geneva International Motor Show, which kicks off on March 5.