With electric vehicles shaking up the industry, the car buying experience itself is evolving at breakneck speed. Brands like Tesla have altered customer expectations, fashioning model showrooms rather than promoting traditional dealerships to woo curious buyers. Chinese automotive manufacturer Geely, the owners of Volvo, Polestar, Lynk & Co, Proton, and Lotus, is making a similar investment in support of their homegrown AI-operated autonomous robocar brand, JIDU, with a stark modern showroom designed to amplify the promise of an electrified and autonomous future.
Launched in 2021, the joint venture with tech giant Baidu is currently represented by the JIDU Robo-01 electric SUV, with a follow up Robo-02 electric sedan coming soon, each engineered with autonomous driving technology at the heart of their e-car experience.
The newly opened showroom in Shanghai consists of three areas spanning the first floor of a luxury shopping center situated in Lujiazui Financial Centre.
Fronted by a prominent JIDU logo across the showroom’s exterior, guests are ushered through two entrances connected into an illuminated tunnel hallway to eventually emerge into an austere metallic paneled, minimalist showroom with a large-scale multimedia installation engineered to alter content and lighting according to the movement of guests.
There are unmistakable similarities to an Apple Store interior, right down to the cushioned stools in front of a large screen display and long tables exhibiting JIDU’s branded accessories. The brand describes the interior design as inspired by pixels to evoke “associations with computer games, technologies, and AI.”
Inspired by the metallic finish of the ROBOCARs, the interior showroom is swathed in matte metal paneling.
The JIDU experience also incorporates a café attached to a foyer to display the brand’s ROBOCAR models and be greeted by brand ambassadors with refreshments in hand, before inviting entry into a studio area where potential buyers are welcome to peruse vehicle parts, color samples, and materials set across a massive JIDU purple-hued, monolithic table. Guests are welcome to customize their vehicle in realtime, with options projected live onto a large screen.
JIDU punctuates the buying experience with a cushy and comfortable VIP salon. Future plans will allow buyers to watch their JIDU vehicle leave the garage from a large screen, drive up to the showroom guided by autopilot, then roll up to open their new car’s doors to welcome passengers on their AI-guided maiden voyage.
Source: design-milk