Chrysler Portal concept: all-electric minivan for CES offers some self-driving (specs updated)
Chrysler Portal concept: all-electric minivan for CES offers some self-driving (specs updated)
It was widely rumored that Chrysler would expose an all-electric minivan at this week’s Consumer Electronics Show—and now we have the details.
But the Chrysler Portal concept that will debut at CES won’t be showcasing up at your local dealer any time soon.
Far from it, in fact: the Portal is Fiat Chrysler’s idea of a future in which we’ll travel in electrified cars that drive themselves.
And evidently we’ll be sharing everything about our trips on social media, since the the Portal will let its occupants “turn road trips into social memories.”
The Chrysler electrical minivan concept is designed to seat six, and promises a range of two hundred fifty miles or more on a single charge. The company said only that the battery capacity would be one hundred kilowatt-hours.
DC rapid charging at up to three hundred fifty kilowatts will add one hundred fifty miles of range to the battery, Chrysler says, in less than twenty minutes.
Chrysler Portal concept, two thousand seventeen Consumer Electronics Showcase
EDITOR’S NOTE: We have updated this story with a handful of extra technical specs from Chrysler.
One of the main purposes of the Portal concept is to explore how vehicle interiors and their connectivity features will switch as autonomous capabilities roll out into production vehicles.
FCA notes the Portal presently offers self-driving features, but only to SAE Level 3—meaning it can perform all functions in certain situations, like highway driving, without the need for a driver to monitor it.
Today’s most advanced vehicles with autonomous capabilities are considered to embody Level Two, which still requires a driver to be on call to react instantaneously if the car encounters a situation it can’t treat.
The Portal is designed, however, to be upgraded to Level four autonomy when the advanced sensing and control algorithms that permit that are ready.
The ultimate objective, Level five autonomous driving, is the one in which a car can securely treat all road and weather conditions without a human onboard—or with its human passenger(s) asleep.
Much of the Portal concept’s concentrate is on the advanced infotainment systems to keep its occupants connected and busy. (None of them read books, evidently.)
FCA engineers worked with a team from Panasonic to integrate the broad display mounted high at the top of the dash for the most vital information. A 2nd screen in the center of the dash offers non-mission-critical functions.
Chrysler Portal concept, two thousand seventeen Consumer Electronics Showcase
FCA says the Portal will collect a broad spectrum of visual, sensor-based and cloud data, sourced from voice, facial recognition and numerous other inputs.
It organizes and configures that information for display, and tailors how it’s introduced to keep the driver’s attention on the most vital features and suggest customized programming for each passenger.
Fiat Chrysler has been working with Waymo, the renamed Google self-driving car project, for more than a year now.
It recently announced it would produce one hundred Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans to the company, all outfitted with Waymo’s self-driving sensors and software.
The smallest of Detroit’s three automakers has partnered with a number of electronics and digital companies for the R&D that will be required for the electrical and increasingly autonomous vehicles of the next decade.
Meantime, Fiat Chrysler has now eliminated two of its sedan lines for the U.S. to give it more production capacity for hot-selling crossover utility vehicles and light trucks.
Chrysler Portal concept, two thousand seventeen Consumer Electronics Showcase
Its plug-in Pacifica Hybrid minivan will be available at dealers within the very first three months of this year.
But buyers hoping that the company would unveil an all-electric version of the Chrysler Pacifica—as rumored over the last few weeks—will have to wait fairly a while longer for that one.
The Consumer Electronics Showcase opens to registered attendees on Thursday, January Five.
For all the news and updates from Las Vegas, see our CES stories page.
