Future of cars?, what do you think? Options

[creis]

GINA

whats your opinions? I'm kinda leaning twards no but there are some serious advantages.

[BloodyStupidDave...]

whats your opinions? I'm kinda leaning twards no but there are some serious advantages.

About time we had some serious innovation. The specific materials they chose make sense for a concept car but not for a production vehicle. But once you start asking questions like this, you start getting some really interesting answers.

For instance, there are plastic-like materials that change colour depending upon the voltage or current running across its surface. Imagine a car where you could choose the colour of all its body panels from the on-board computer much like one can change the undercar glow on some show cars.

Another good example (and kinda hinted at with the video) - car headlights are the size and shape they are because of the high temperature tungsten bulbs we have used in the past. If we use LED lights, the headlights can be 5mm slits in an otherwise unbroken bodywork. We can return to the lines of 1980s/1990s cars such as the 5th gen. Celica but where the lines stay the same whether the lights are on or not.

If we use EL string, we could have cars that have an orange outline (tramline) running all the way around the car rather than lots of discrete marker lights. Similarly, daytime running lights could be more creative than two point lights at the front of the vehicle.

Given the rising cost of most metals and the way that most are prone to corrosion, it is really rather weird that we haven't already gotten further along the process of finding alternative skins for cars - skins that are more resiliant to knocks, scratches and the elements.

Another concept I really like is the GM Autonomy:
linky

...Because the car is fly by wire, defining a standard connector between the chassis+powerplant and the cabin means that one can simply change cabins as needed (eg sports car for the daily commute, MPV for the weekend).