Volvo Concept You - the future Volvo

Volvo Concept You - Volvo's future direction

The Volvo Concept You is revealed today at Frankfurt 2011, following on from Volvo’s Concept Universe and pointing at Volvo’s future.

We have to confess that we weren’t huge fans of the Volvo Concept Universe at Shanghai this year, but the Frankfurt offering – the Volvo Concept You – is more convincing.

The Concept Universe at Shanghai was just a bit too much ‘East meets West’ in design, with the feeling that it was just not quite the right direction for a new, more upmarket Volvo to follow. But the Concept You is more convincing.

Although Volvo aren’t giving out any details of what underpins the Concept You, it doesn’t matter. Concept You is about pointing the way to the future of Volvo design, and how it will integrate the latest tech.

So we see all the Concept You’s functions boiled down to work from one big touchscreen in the middle of the dashboard, which is so clever it knows when the driver is looking at it and turns on. What happens if Mr Driver has his Ray Bans on, we don’t know.

All you will need to know is accessible from the screen – a screen the passenger sees a different view on, just like the split-screens in Jaguar and Land Rover cars – and the driver can push the screen data on to a heads-up display with just a swipe.

There’s plenty of concept daftness in Concept You, like the door panels which look like a suit – complete with pen-holding pocket. But there’s other clever stuff too – which should make its way in to current Volvos – like the new audio system from Alpine which comes complete with a ‘FreshAir’ subwoofer, which takes the normal weight down by 90 per cent.

A much more convincing direction from Volvo in Concept You.