Beware! Future cars will make people so addicted that they will not return home at night, this is a brand new car life.

At KLIMS 2024, what impressed me most was the Perodua Ativa Fuze, for it has distinctive exterior design, and more attractively, it supports PS5 playing inside!

"Ah... what’s the point of playing PS5 in the car? Why don’t you play it at home?" Surely some might ask.

When iPhone was first released, many people mocked it, too, questioning who would use a mobile phone for videos watching and music listening. They were convinced that clearer sound was the main and only duty of a mobile phone. But when iPhone and traditional mobile phones are placed in front of people, obviously iPhone is more likely to be the preference.

So do Perodua Ativa and Peroda Ativa Fuze. Most consumers might opt for the latter.

Is playing games in the car too over the top? Actually, car companies are even more unconventional than you think

The concept behind Perodua Ativa Fuze is not considered radical globally. Because Tesla has already done it before.

The Model S Plaid can even run "Cyberpunk 2077", not because someone moved a PS5 into the Model S Plaid, but Model S Plaid is equipped with AMD Navi 23 GPU core as hardware support for its autonomous driving, which offers performance comparable to that of the PS5.

Musk may not be the one who know how to enjoy life the best, since he’s too busy figuring out how to get to Mars. However, many people are looking for ways to make life more comfortable here on Earth.

To overcome the fatigue caused by gravity during rides, LEAPMOTOR C10 has researched car seats, ensuring they are soft yet supportive, providing support without putting excessive pressure on some parts of the passenger's body. By doing so, passengers can sit in the car for extended periods to play games or watch movies.

If you want to recline partially, put down the front seats, sit in the rear ones, and look out through the windshield at the scenery or watch a movie. By the way, the movie is not shown on the 15-inch screen, but on a projector inside the car.

Xpeng P5 supports in-car projection function, allowing for a projection size of up to 45 inches, with a picture resolution reaching 4K level at 3840x2160 dpi. The car also features six speakers that provide a surround sound experience.

If there are too many people in your car to watch just one movie. No problem! The AITO Wenji M9 boasts a total of 10 screens inside!

One for AR-HUD system, triple screens in the front row, one for the projection curtain in the second row, four Pads in front of the second and third row seats. Where's the last one? The headlights of WenJi M9 actually function as a projector, allowing passengers to show films onto white walls.

Do we really need these functions in our cars?

Of course they are not necessary. But a car featuring these functions will surely have its market competitiveness strenghtened, thereby forcing its competitors to follow up.

So who is responsible for such trend in automotive industry? It's hard to pinpoint exactly, but it certainly has a lot to do with a Chinese automotive company called LiXiang.

LiXiang Auto was established on July 1, 2015, and it is the only emerging automotive brand in China that has achieved profitability. In 2023, LiXiang reported an annual revenue of RMB 123.85 billion and a net profit of RMB 11.81 billion. The success of LiXiang comes from its first model, the LiXiang ONE.

The product philosophy of LiXiang ONE is to create a "mobile home," with seating inside the car designed for the comfort of every passenger. The front seats are equipped with heating, ventilation, and massage functions, while the rear seats also feature heating and massage capabilities.

The copilot seat innovatively provides a large screen that operates independently of the other three screens inside vehicle, allowing the copilot to freely play music and movies—a design that was later adopted by Porsche.

Due to the powerful audio-visual entertainment capabilities and comfortable seating, many owners choose to stay in their cars to watch movies or listen to music while waiting someone else. Outside, the sun beats down, while inside, it gives a grand concert, envied by owners of Benz and BMW, later leading to a "LiXiang ONE Rush."

LiXiang ONE was launched in October 2018. From January to December of the following year, its total sales reached 33,457 units. It was also in the same year that BYD was on the brink of bankruptcy.

LiXiang ONE achieved a production milestone of 200,000 units in just 986 days, making it a very successful model and attracting many imitators.

The AITO WenJi M9 is a model launched by HUAWEI in response to LiXiang. The second row of WenJi M9 is a zero gravity seat, featuring 14-way electric adjustment and complete functions of heating, ventilation, and massage. The model also has 25 professional sound units, with the power of the sound equipment alone reaching 2080W.

Beyond AITO, other companies like Voyah, LEAPMOTOR, Hyper HL, Xpeng, and Venucia are also introducing similar products. Most of these car companies promote their products as "mobile homes", the "third space for work and home", and "the ideal home for young people".

Regardless of whether more screens, stronger audio systems, or more comfortable seats are truly needed, cars that provide these features have achieved varying degrees of success, which illustrates that automobiles can be much more than just simple means of transport.

Cars will serve as mobile camps, a home away from home

Perhaps the introduction of air conditioning in cars foreshadowed the future of automotive development—it would become our second home.

At critical moments, a car that can provide a comfortable sleeping environment becomes invaluable. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many people were unable to check into hotels and were reluctant to return home for fear of exposing their families to infection, forcing them to live outdoors. Resting for a day or two in a conventional car is manageable, but quarantine for COVID-19 requires at least five days or more.

Even without COVID-19, imagine if you are a bridge construction engineer and one day you're extremely tired from working on-site and need a timely rest. You can easily unfold a bed over a meter wide in your car. Lie down, adjust your sleeping position at will, and quickly drift off to sleep in the soothing car music.

Or, on the weekend, you go camping with children. Forget about the hot weather during the day and the noisy mosquitoes around. Luckily, the tired children are now watching cartoons leisurely inside the car.

If you need some solitude, it's even easier. Just drive the car to a secluded place, adjust the seats, and you are free to play video games inside the car for the whole day, an experience much more enjoyable than in a Perodua Ativa Fuze.

Between A and B, there are actually a lot to do

Some people always say: a car is nothing beyond a mode of transport that takes you from point A to point B and it requires no more functions.

This is too absolute an opinion. It’s like saying that: from the moment people are born, they are just walking towards death. Such a pessimistic and negative viewpoint ignores the countless beautiful moments in between— the laughter of youth, the wrong decisions made in early years, and the wealth accumulated in middle age...

As travelling from A to B, we pass under skies painted with the evening glow and streets filled with snacks in Penang. When we take the time to enjoy them, the car becomes the best mobile camp, allowing us not to worry about where to spend the night. And some people may even become enamored with the lifestyle of a mobile camp.