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Chrysler's Portal Is a Self-Driving Electric Minivan for Millennials

The car maker reasons that millennials are growing up, or they will soon, regardless of whether they want to admit it.

 & Angela Moscaritolo Managing Editor, Consumer Electronics

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LAS VEGAS—At its inaugural CES press conference here, Fiat Chrysler showed off a self-driving, fully electric minivan concept intended for millennials.

CES 2017 BugYes, you just read that correctly. The car maker reasons that millennials are growing up, or they will soon, regardless of whether they want to admit it. And at that point they'll want a tricked-out minivan, because babies.

Chrysler's Portal concept is customizable and was designed to grow with you. If you buy it as a single person, you can opt to have just one seat inside, for instance. If babies come along, you can order up to five more seats, which offer "hammock-like comfort" and "amazing legroom," as Engineer Ashley Edgar, one of four millennials the company sent on stage to show off the vehicle, explained.

Chrysler Fiat Portal Concept

Inside, Portal is supposed to look like a really cool studio workspace with lots of natural light pouring in. There are several windows and every passenger has their own sunroof.

Chrysler wants people to see the car as a "third space" after your home and work, Edgar said. On the inside, the "steering wheel" isn't a wheel at all. The control is supposed to look like something out of a racecar or luxury jet. And when the car is in self-driving mode, this control tucks away flush with the instrument panel, so it's completely hidden.

If you're always misplacing your keys, no worries: Chrysler has a solution. The Portal uses biometric technology to recognize you as you walk up. It'll greet you and open the door, then automatically adjust to your preferences, playing your favorite music and setting itself to your preferred temperature, for instance, based on your personal cloud-based profile.

Chrysler Fiat Portal Concept

Eight docking stations are placed throughout the vehicle, so everyone can charge up their gadgets. The car is also "device agnostic," so it will grow with you and adjust to your needs over time, said User Experience Designer Emilio Feliciano. So, new parents can plug a baby monitor in the back and access the video up front, he said. When the kid gets a little older, you can plug in a Baby Einstein tablet, and over time the little one may graduate to an Xbox or PlayStation. The car will support all these gadgets.

In terms of aesthetics, the vehicle was designed around the doors, which open away from each other, towards the front and back of the vehicle, forming a 5-foot-wide portal for which the car was named. Around the doors is a border of light, which can be customized to a number of different jewel tones, similar to what Uber is doing with its color-pairing beacons. When the car is in autonomous driving mode, the border around the doors will default to a standard color so other people on the road know what's up.

As for range, Edgar said the vehicle was designed for road trips. It sports a 100kW battery pack, which offers more than 250 miles of range, and it charges 150 miles in just 15 minutes.

Edgar said the team wanted to design something that millennials see as an "object of desire." The company may have just achieved that. Minivans aren't known as being particularly sexy, but this isn't your average minivan.

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About Our Expert

Angela Moscaritolo

Angela Moscaritolo

Managing Editor, Consumer Electronics

My Experience

I'm PCMag's managing editor for consumer electronics, overseeing an experienced team of analysts covering smart home, home entertainment, wearables, fitness and health tech, and various other product categories. I have been with PCMag for more than 10 years, and in that time have written more than 6,000 articles and reviews for the site. I previously served as an analyst focused on smart home and wearable devices, and before that I was a reporter covering consumer tech news. I'm also a yoga instructor, and have been actively teaching group and private classes for nearly a decade. 

Prior to joining PCMag, I was a reporter for SC Magazine, focusing on hackers and computer security. I earned a BS in journalism from West Virginia University, and started my career writing for newspapers in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.

The Technology I Use

My little Florida beach bungalow is brimming with smart home tech. I have a smart speaker or display in every room, allowing me to control other connected devices by voice. The Nest Hub on my bedside table lets me set wake-up alarms, control my smart light bulbs, and set the temperature on my smart thermostat. I use the Amazon Echo Show 8 on my kitchen counter to browse recipes, reorder protein powder, check the weather, and watch the news while I do dishes. 

Because I suffer from allergies, air purifiers are essential. My favorite model is the Dyson Purifier Cool TP07, which doubles as a fan and continuously sends indoor pollution data to its companion mobile app. 

My pitbull Bradley sheds, so a good robot vacuum is a must. I currently use a premium Ecovacs Deebot that can both vacuum and mop, empty its own dustbin, and wash its own mop cloth. 

For fitness, I like to mix up my routine with cycling, indoor rowing, running, and strength training in addition to yoga. I take classes on the Tonal 2 smart strength training machine, I row indoors on an Aviron machine, and track my beach runs with an Apple Watch while listening to music on my Apple AirPods Pro. On the weekends, I love riding e-bikes like the rugged, beach-friendly Aventon Aventure for fun and fitness.

My job involves a lot of virtual meetings, so a quality webcam, microphone, and ring light are important. I use the Jabra PanaCast 20 webcam, the Elgato Wave: 3 microphone, and a Yesker tripod ring light. 

As for my preferred phone platform, I'm an iPhone person, but I've also extensively used Android for product testing.

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