An underwater car now a reality ?

Its no more a friction from the James bond movies, its now a reality. Rinspeed, a Swiss motor company is planning to showcase its version on the submersible car at the Geneva Motor Show (March 6-16, 2008). Its called the “sQuba".

The £750,000 prototype, which can dive to a depth of 10 metres. It is the brainchild of concept car designer Frank Rinderknecht. Rinderknecht is apparently an acknowledged James Bond enthusiast and has been very facinated and inspired by concept of the underwater car that he saw in one of the bond movie.

The "sQuba" car is capable of speeds of up to 120 km/h on land, a more sedate 6.4 km/h cruising in "boat" mode and just 3.2 km/h beneath the surface. There are three electric motors are located in the rear, with one providing propulsion on land, driving the rear wheels, while the other two drive the screws for underwater motoring. However the occupants have to wear wetsuits to stay dry and breathe air from an integrated tank similar to that used by scuba divers.

The vehicle can stay underwater until it runs out of air or battery power, normally about two hours. The car has more Bond-like tricks up its sleeve, it is even capable of autonomous driving on land thanks to a sophisticated laser sensor system from the Hamburg company Ibeo - without any help from the driver or passenger.

You can find out more about sQuba here at the official site of Rinspeed. By the way also check out the video of the underwater care, the "sQuba"