Chrysler at CES: Synthesis Concept Demonstrates Future Interior Design

Tim Healey
by Tim Healey

If you were hoping that Chrysler would show off a new model at the 2023 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, well we've got disappointing news for you.


Chrysler is instead showing off a two-seat interior concept called Synthesis.

The press release is buzzword-heavy, with the phrase "Harmony in Motion" being highlighted. Translated into plain English, Chrysler is using the Synthesis concept to show how its future interior designs will be representative of harmony throughout the entire car-buying and ownership process.

Yeah, we're rolling our eyes, too. At least at the marketing speak -- there is newsworthy stuff here.

Basically, Chrysler will get to be the first Stellantis brand to get a new type of interior design, one that Stellantis says is sustainable and also will use "Smart Cockpit" and "AutoDrive" tech.

“For nearly 100 years, Chrysler has created ingenious products and technologies for mainstream customers, and Chrysler will continue that legacy of innovation as the first to launch the STLA Smart Cockpit in North America. The Chrysler Synthesis shown at CES 2023 represents the future of Chrysler brand design, technology, and customer experience, by introducing customer-centric design and intuitive, seamlessly connected technology for real life,” said Chris Feuell, Chrysler brand CEO – Stellantis, in a statement. “Chrysler is focused on delivering ‘Harmony In Motion’ for every aspect of the customer experience with the product, technology, purchase and ownership experiences, resulting in harmony with the planet, our products and services and customer experiences.”

Chrysler/Stellantis does take the opportunity to remind us that the brand plans to have its first EV ready for 2025 and that it plans to have its lineup be all-electric by 2028. Also, Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares will give the keynote speech at CES on Thursday.

The release is heavier on buzzwords than specifics, at least at first, but we assume "connected technology" refers to smartphone-type tech such as apps and "AutoDrive" refers to autonomous driving tech.

We appear to assume correctly, as part of the showcase is a 37.2-inch infotainment screen. The system can learn drivers' preferences over time and thus change the UX, and over-the-air updates are available.

"Connected" also means that the system has a virtual personal assistant -- think Siri -- that can do things like sync calendars, automatically update, allow drivers to focus on other tasks if the car is being driven autonomously, find parking and charging options, and help people shop via e-commerce.

As usual, those are just concept-car promises, meaning they should be taken with a decent-size helping of salt until production versions exist.

As for "AutoDrive", it refers to Level 3 self-driving.

The interior is chrome-free, and sustainable materials, according to Chrysler, include vegetable-tanned seats and a recycled melange heather instrument panel, which is built from 100 percent post-industrial and ocean plastics. Another key item is "responsibly sourced" walnut flooring. There's also LED lighting.

If you're at CES this week, you can check it out.

[Image: Chrysler]

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Tim Healey
Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

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  • ToolGuy ToolGuy on Jan 05, 2023

    "its future interior designs will be representative of harmony throughout the entire car-buying and ownership process"

    So we will sit in the vehicle to run through the four-square?

    • ToolGuy ToolGuy on Jan 05, 2023

      Section 6 of this article might be worth a read. But then again it is 16 years old and probably doesn't reflect anything happening in 2023; sorry for wasting your time.


  • Sgeffe Sgeffe on Jan 05, 2023

    I actually felt physically ill after reading that load of bovine fecal material!


    A holder of a marketing degree or someone who cleans out a pig pen: which one shovels more..you know..in a year?!

  • Bd2 Hyundai's designs are indeed among the most innovative and their battery technologies should allow class leading fuel consumption. Smartstream hybrids are extremely reliable.
  • 28-Cars-Later So now H/K motors will last longer in between scheduled replacements. Wow, actual progress.
  • AZFelix I have always wondered if the poor ability of Tesla cars in detecting children was due to their using camera only systems. Optical geometry explains that a child half the height of an adult seems to have the same height as that same adult standing twice as far away from the viewer.
  • 28-Cars-Later Actually pretty appealing (apparently I'm doing this now). On a similar note, a friend of mine had a difficult situation with a tenant which led to eviction and apparently the tenant has abandoned a 2007 Jag S-Type with unknown miles in the garage so he called me for an opinion. Before checking I said $2-3 max, low and behold I'm just that good with the 3.0L clocking in at $2,3 on average (oddly the 4.2 V8 version only pulls $2,9ish) and S-Types after MY05 are supposedly decent.
  • DO I have owned a 2012 LR4 since day one and it has been the best vehicle I have ever had the pleasure of having in the garage. I know how easy it is to hate on Land Rover but this LR4 is comfortable, has a ton of storage room and is so versatile. With 110k miles, mine is now relegated to ‘other’ car use but is still the go to for off road adventures and snow runs. Nice to see one featured here - I think they are so underrated.
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