French maker unveils cabin wellness concept

Sick and tired of being stuck in gridlocks on a daily basis? PSA (Peugeot-Citroen) has devised a new cabin concept that alleviates the drudgery and fatigue associated with the urban crawl and endless inter-city freeway schleps.

Dubbed the ‘Chrysalide concept’, PSA bills the new cabin philosophy as “a holistic approach to total physical, social and mental wellbeing”.

The new tech uses a dashboard camera to analyse facial expressions and determine whether the driver is drowsy, stressed or irritable.

The system then responds by triggering several vehicle functions to create “an experience in well-being that awakens the senses”.  

The multi-sensory approach encapsulates sight (through the ambient lighting in the roof, dashboard, door panels and seats), smell (through the use of fragrance via a diffuser on the central air vent) and hearing (through a special playlist and sound treatment in the cabin and upper seatbacks).

The power-adjustable seats have a three-position memory (driving, welcome and relaxation), and they serve up heating/cooling with air flows in the upper seatbacks and three massage zones: seatback, cushion and calf rest.

Meanwhile, Spatial Sound technology digitises audio signals to crank out better quality music reproduction, as well as more clearly comprehensible sat-nav instructions.

You also breathe easier in the car as the pollution control unit is based on technology that detects and processes particles in the cabin using a filter of advanced efficiency meeting HEPA criteria.

Pollutant gases and chemical compounds are absorbed by a system combining activated carbon, catalysts and zeolites. The system can be remotely programmed and activated to purify the air inside the cabin before a journey.

“Car travel is seen as an opportunity, something positive, since you get something out of it. Just sitting behind the steering wheel is enjoyable once again since you can enjoy an experience in well-being,” says Beatrice Daillant-Vasselin, head of the polysensory project.

The Chrysalide concept isn’t just airy-fairy blue-sky nonsense as the Spatial Sound system and the pollution control system be offered in Peugeot, Citroën and DS models from 2016.