Audi Urbansphere developed with eye for North American consumer tastes

The Audi Urbansphere — the last of three concepts exploring a future beyond the combustion engine and with advanced automated driving — uses familiar exterior styling to build an alternate mobile interior living or working space.

The electric vehicle, shown last week, is targeted primarily at Chinese consumers but with an eye toward North America. It follows two other EV concepts: the variable-geometry Skysphere roadster and the Grandsphere, a large luxury grand touring sedan with two front-row seats and a rear bench.

While the three concepts’ on-road roles differ widely, each lays out a future in which manually piloting the vehicle is largely optional for the driver and the cabin serves a secondary purpose as an entertainment venue. With the Urbansphere, the environment is taken to the extreme: It has an adaptive stress relief program that uses facial scans and voice analysis to determine how passengers are feeling. The program offers personalized suggestions for relaxation — for example, a meditation app can be used via the personal screen and the private sound zone in the headrests.