Rinspeed: “I like to be crazy. There are plenty of normal people”

“I get into the shower, turn it to as hot as possible, bite on my tongue, go under it and see what comes out.”

An awkward pause. TG.com looks over at a 60-year-old Frank Rinderknecht, boss of Rinspeed, as he struggles to contain his laughter. He’s standing beside his modified BMW i8 concept dubbed ‘Etos’ at the Consumer Electronics Show. He’s also struggling to contain his laughter.

“I’m kidding,” he bursts out. Phew. The question we very innocently posed was thus: from where does he draw his inspiration?

“Inspiration can come from any place,” he says with gentle inflection. “I walk around the world with open eyes. I try to be a sponge.”

He leans in closer. “More importantly, I try to understand you and I – what our desires and fears are. In our concept cars, we address issues that people are talking about. This year, we ask, ‘how much man should be in a machine?’"

He points to the luminescent yellow Etos concept. It’s certainly an eye-catching thing; a car that took five months to build from start to finish, one that’s based on BMW’s i8, but packs a rear-mounted drone and a fully retractable steering wheel.

“With our Xchange concept we showed two years ago,” Frank says, “we had the steering wheel which was able to move to one side. Our last car, the Budii [based on an i3], we had a robotic arm.

“This time, I said ‘let’s do some Las Vegas magic in the style of David Copperfield, and let’s have the steering wheel disappear’,” he says with a flourish. 

Clearly, we need to talk about Frank, but first, let’s talk about the Etos. Why an i8? “Because the base of the car needed to be politically correct… and that means sustainable,” Frank says. Apart from the i8’s 362bhp petrol-electric drivetrain, the carbon core, and the excellent butterfly doors, it’s all brand new. Inside, there’s lots of leather, a pair of lovely seats, and a completely redesigned dash.

The steering wheel, as mentioned, is capable of retracting fully into the dashboard, which also houses two separate curved displays. In collaboration with Harman, the Etos also features such buzzwords as ‘intelligent vehicle solutions’ (giving the car a ‘brain’ for it to learn your preferences and remember them), to an advanced navigation that collects data from surrounding cars. This means nearby incidents, traffic, speed limits and even the dangerous road conditions, are all telegraphed to your screen.

Oh, the fully autonomous aspect of it however, is, um, fake. What isn’t is the damn drone on the back.

“I doubt drones will be part of the car in the future,” Frank says, “but it shows the connectivity of things. And it’s fun. Pretend it’s Valentine’s Day, and you’ve forgotten to order some flowers. OK. You order them online, the drone flies off and delivers them.

“It’s also like an extension of your ‘selfie’ stick. Maybe the ‘selfie’ drone is the next step.”

He’s not laughing now, and he turns serious. “We try to address soft issues, and to determine the elements behind ethics and morals. A machine doesn’t have ethics, and our standards are different. We will excuse and accept human errors, but no machine errors,” he says.

“The machine can never win.”

A small pause. “The fact is, we expect 100 per cent reliability from a machine, but it will make a mistake. We are the transition generation.”

Our grandchildren, says Frank, will look back on these days with shock, wondering how on earth we ever used to ‘drive ourselves’. But he’s just loving being in the mix at this pivotal moment in the car industry, soaking it all up.

“Today it’s much easier for me to find ideas,” he says. “Ten years ago it was more difficult. With the changes right now happening so quickly and disruptively, you just open your eyes and look out. 

“I listen to my heart,” he adds. “That’s my advantage. I can’t explain it. A big car company can’t run like that. They need powerpoint presentations, a business case… if you say ‘it’s my gut feeling’, it won’t work."

The long term plan for Rinspeed is to continue along this path; to act on gut feeling. “We never sell cars, but I’m sure elements of this car will sell. Our primary customers and partners are the suppliers industry. I personally don’t want to be hooked up with a big manufacturer: we’re Swiss, we’re neutral, and I see much more momentum in the supplier industry,” he says.

From an early life as a tuner – yes, Frank’s world used to be all about big wheels and spoilers – to building a modified i8, you have to wonder what on earth he’ll come up with next.

“Have I been under the shower recently?” he laughs. “I’d like to be a sponge for as long as I can. My next project will be something different completely. I couldn’t do another sportscar because it would cannibalise the Etos. But it’ll be a continuation of our story. It will continue being crazy.

“And I like to be crazy. There are plenty of normal people in the world out there,” he says with a grin. 

Salut.