Rinspeed sQuba Concept
The biggest pre-show buzz among boutique builders was for Rinspeed’s amphibious, deep-diving, Lotus Elise-based “sQuba”. Going into the show, we had heard it was actually capable of driving into the water, floating about like a slow motorboat, and then diving beneath the surface like an open-topped submarine.
After seeing a short video loop of the sQuba in action, we were sort of glad it was sitting still. That’s the best way to describe the way the little white Lotus pondered, wheels motionless, several feet below the water’s surface (it can dive to a maximum of 33 feet). Inside, a pair of occupants—seen seconds before in clothes and sunglasses “driving” on top of the water at about a knot .
Even more wrong but equally pointless is the ability of the sQuba to drive on dry land by itself, as in, by remote control, guided by laser sensors keeping it from running over curbs, trees or, say, surfers changing in the beach parking lot as it silently makes its own way back to the sea, perhaps to find others of its kind.
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