sQuba, the driving, diving concept car from Rinspeed

Our old friends at Swiss tuning, restoration, and general ride-pimping expert Rinspeed are back with perhaps their most ambitious project to date: a fully-submersible concept car dubbed the sQuba that's equally at home on the road or under the sea. Set to be unveiled next March at the Geneva Motor Show, the multi-faceted, electric motor-powered vehicle reminds us somewhat of the Gibbs Aquada and Hydra Spyder, except the sQuba is actually able to dive and navigate up to ten meters underwater thanks to jet drives in the bow and propellers in the stern. A self-contained, on-board system inside the carbon nanotube-based body structure provides occupants with fresh air while submerged, although the engineers probably let down more than a few folks by omitting a weapons system of any kind. No release date yet -- or even production plans -- for this one-off supercar, which, might we be so bold to suggest, would make a hell of a better-looking crime-fighter than you, Mr. Knight Industries Three Thousand. Bigger pics in the gallery below...

Gallery: sQuba, the driving, diving concept car from Rinspeed

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[Via gizmag]

[john @ Dec 26th 2007 4:54PM]

So, kinda like the Mach 5?

[john @ Dec 26th 2007 5:47PM]

Or James Bond's Lotus from "The Spy Who Loved Me".

[Rocketboy @ Dec 26th 2007 6:15PM]

Naa, not like the Mach 5... it needs a periscope.

[Kelley Doern @ Dec 26th 2007 4:56PM]

does it at least go chitty-chitty-bang-bang?

[timothy.zahm @ Dec 26th 2007 4:57PM]

I love that the roof is down underwater. That must make for poor breathing conditions.

[tadghostal @ Dec 26th 2007 5:00PM]

lol. I noticed that as well. I guess if it starts raining you can put it back up.

[billgrove @ Dec 26th 2007 4:58PM]

Sure... I'll TAKE IT!

[blade417 @ Dec 27th 2007 10:26AM]

nah, i'd rather have a hovercar or something to that effect.

[OneLove @ Dec 26th 2007 4:59PM]

Is engadget tracking our ip's? I can only login into my profile from my home computer? is this true for anyone else?

[adam @ Dec 26th 2007 5:27PM]

I wonder if AAA will come get me if I run out of gas...

[adam @ Dec 26th 2007 5:28PM]

Awww crap.
I'm fired.

[Kaijin @ Dec 26th 2007 4:59PM]

Those are pictures of a Lotus Elise, with poor photoshop skills applied.

[Jonathan @ Dec 26th 2007 5:00PM]

Worst. Renders. Ever.

Why the hell is the roof down?

[Reader @ Dec 26th 2007 5:41PM]

It's a little thing called humor.

[Reader @ Dec 26th 2007 5:43PM]

Actually, my apologies. I RTFA just now, I thought that pic was an Engadget photoshop.

[siberdog @ Dec 26th 2007 8:53PM]

If the cockpit were watertight, the vehicle would need to weigh several tons to have neutral buoyancy.

[mushrooshi @ Dec 26th 2007 5:08PM]

Wow, only 10 metres?

[computer.dude.28 @ Dec 26th 2007 7:04PM]

I know, today's vehicles can already go WAY deeper than 10 metres, but the living conditions aren't very good in them.

[Ed @ Dec 26th 2007 7:21PM]

Only 10 Metres? LOL

I'm impressed it can go that far. It takes quite a bit of engineering to make something withstand 32 feet of water that has car doors on it.

Nevermind the fact that it apparently has force fields akin to the structural integrity fields in Star Trek. How else can you explain an underwater convertible?

[Jonathan Keim @ Dec 26th 2007 5:14PM]

Is the convertible top down???

Not much good then is it? I see the driver is no longer in the car... he/she should have doubled checked the car before scuba diving with it.

I can just see this in the future owner's manual

[Matthew Hilario @ Dec 26th 2007 5:17PM]

::High-Speed Pursuit in Progress::
Suspect has merged from Interstate-5 onto the 8 heading west.
Suspect has exited West Mission Bay Drive approaching 120mph.
Suspect has now exited onto the North Pacific Ocean.

[Hammond X @ Dec 27th 2007 12:44AM]

Are you sure he's not approaching Fiesta Island?

[Michael @ Dec 26th 2007 5:37PM]

Yeah, I'm not so sure I'd feel safe submerging with no freaking top.

Other than that, it seems pretty cool. Not the first concept to do this, but I do like the way it provides oxygen to it's drivers.

[senyl @ Dec 26th 2007 5:40PM]

i noticed the top was down too, but i also noticed that the windshield wiper is ready. I don't think it would do much good underwater.

I guess you could try to scrape the jellyfish off your windshield, but the washer won't work too well.

[hotwings1 @ Dec 26th 2007 5:41PM]

Reminds me too much of a Telsa, which reminds me too much of a Lotus, which then further reminds me of the fact that Lotus helped to develop the Tesla roadster.

[rj @ Dec 26th 2007 5:48PM]

Yes! Now we can expand the world of auto collisions into the watery realms!

[Josh @ Dec 26th 2007 6:27PM]

right when you thought drunk driving above ground sucked.

[Natedog @ Dec 26th 2007 5:53PM]

Now, being ambitious is one thing, but making the first-ever car/submarine... a convertible?!?

[3rdsun @ Dec 26th 2007 6:20PM]

Hope KITT can do this in the new Knight Rider series

[Ricardo @ Dec 26th 2007 6:45PM]

This ruins the fun of dumping the car in a lake.

[Ed @ Dec 26th 2007 7:22PM]

My first question is: WHY?

I can understand a car converting into a boat. That actually makes sense for people who have to take ferry's all the time. You could easily make one that performs both jobs adequately with a respectable level of safety. It would save time and money which would be an efficient use of resources.

How many people actually need a CAR and a SUBMARINE? Of those people, who would benefit from the cost savings of merging the technologies?

Not to mention the technical difficulties of making a model that could perform both jobs well and be SAFE at the same time.

Unless Q handed me the keys and explained it a little bit, I think I would feel nervous just getting into it.

[mac @ Dec 26th 2007 7:42PM]

is it just me or are those just pictures of an open top convertable on an ocean background?

[James Bond @ Dec 26th 2007 8:02PM]

I hate it when they leave out the weapons system...

[alex @ Dec 26th 2007 8:59PM]

If they throw in a Bond girl I'll get it.

[Nate @ Dec 26th 2007 9:19PM]

who is goin to throw down some serious cash to a company who makes mockups like that?

[Adithya @ Dec 26th 2007 11:01PM]

Electric motor under water? Slight leak and .....

[ZeroCorpse @ Dec 27th 2007 12:40AM]

HUMANITY! Do You Live In Fear That You Have Only Fucked Up 30% Of The Earth's Surface? Would You Like To Pollute EVEN MORE And Aim For EVERY Environment On The Planet?

WELL THERE'S GOOD NEWS!

Now you can pollute both the land AND the sea, with the new sQuba car. Are your highways covered in litter, making the drive to work less scenic? Now you can drive to work underwater, and start the whole process in a part of the Earth we've only slightly damaged thus far!

Impress your friends with something that has no practical value or logical use! Drive through coral reefs like they aren't even there! You can do it all with sQuba!

And hey! Are you sick of just hitting and killing dogs, cats, deer, raccoons, squirrels, kangaroos, and people while cruising in your car? Now you can add a whole new list of living things to your roadkill list! Why, we bet you'll kill things you can't even see, but which are still vitally important to the ecosystem, and perhaps jeopardizes the world's being able to support life as we know it!

Act now, and get a free "I Don't Give A Damn!" T-shirt.

[Andrew @ Dec 27th 2007 12:49AM]

Derrrr it's electric powered...

[DarkAardvark @ Dec 27th 2007 5:07PM]

i often have dreams of plowing down dolphins with a car... hm... you just gave me an awesome idea!

[mlody11 @ Dec 27th 2007 1:40AM]

Speed Limit: 5 knots

Sonar Enforced.
Violators will be depth charged.

[BowserUSC @ Dec 27th 2007 2:05AM]

Here he comes
Here comes Speed Racer
He's a demon on wheels
He's a demon and he's gonna be chasin' after someone.

He's gainin' on you so you better look alive.
He's busy revvin' up a powerful Mach 5.

And when the odds are against him
And there's dangerous work to do
You bet your life Speed Racer
Will see it through.

[Denver_80203 @ Dec 27th 2007 8:47AM]

Finally another place I can pollute!

[St.anger @ Dec 27th 2007 10:19AM]

Lol
A driving and diving.....CONVERTIBLE car....

....

hehe

[snowglyder @ Dec 27th 2007 1:04PM]

Now just make it fly, and you can go wherever GPS tells you to go!

[ug @ Dec 27th 2007 2:00PM]

* Get a pirate copy of 3DStudio
* Make some bullsh*t renders of a concept car
* Pretend to be a company and issue bogus press release
* Profit!

[Anthony @ Dec 27th 2007 3:45PM]

this is only being made so that when the earth floods, only those who are rich and actually buy these cars, and own submarines live.

now i really WANT/HOPEFULLY_NEVER_NEED one.

[Chris Christner @ Dec 27th 2007 4:58PM]

[e-mail]

[Special_K_Ninja @ Dec 27th 2007 5:01PM]

That would suck to be under water and hot box the car........ if you just crack the window would that kinda make it a gravity bong? lol wtf.

[Chris Christner @ Dec 27th 2007 5:13PM]

Wow! The perfect car for those late night jaunts when you've had a few too many and the road's dark and Mary Jo won't shut up so I can drive and that gosh-darned Chappaquiddick bridge doesn't have guardrails...

Anyway, nice car for a swim.

[Richard @ Dec 27th 2007 5:45PM]

Can you imagine the weird insurance claims on this, "So sir, you turned right at Hudson bay and hit a whale"