Automotive

Concept cars that could change transportation as we know it

View 50 Images
The future of transport?
The Terrafugia TF-X is a vertical-take-off-and-landing (VTOL) craft
The Toyota FV2 concept debuted at the 2013 Tokyo Motor Show
The Zoox Boz has a symmetrical design that allows it to drive forward and backward
Gizmag's Mike Hanlon learns to UNI-CUB (Photo: Stephen Clemenger / Lets C Design)
Honda's UNI-CUB β at the 2013 Tokyo Motor Show (Photo: Mike Hanlon / Gizmag.com)
Gizmag's Mike Hanlon learns to UNI-CUB (Photo: Stephen Clemenger / Lets C Design)
The Honda Omni Traction Drive
The FV2's exterior display can be changed to represent the driver's mood
The Toyota FV2 concept debuted at the 2013 Tokyo Motor Show
The FV2 is a tilting four-wheeler
The FV2's augmented reality windshield helps the driver assess his or her environment
The Toyota FV2 concept
The FV2 is a concept based on Toyota's "Fun to Drive" philosophy
A Willie bus with a split advertising/route information display system
The Willie bus concept uses LCDs for advertising, local information and more
This Willie bus uses LCDs to show route information
Daimler's concept uses the car's sensor systems to create a sort of safety infrastructure in the city
The Hyperloop tubes would be raised above the ground
A sketch of Elon Musk's Hyperloop
A sketch of Elon Musk's Hyperloop
Like the Transition, the TF-X is designed to be a road-legal driving aircraft
The TF-X is a four-seat flying commuter car concept
The TF-X's retractable propellers lift it for takeoff
The TF-X is Terrafugia's vision for a flying commuter car
The Terrafugia TF-X has the option of auto pilot mode, making it a combination of flying and autonomous design
The Terrafugia Transition
The Terrafugia Transition's wings fold into the body, allowing it to drive on the streets
Terrafugia demonstrated its Transition aircraft this past summer
The Transition's wings fold to allow it to drive on public roads
The Zoox Boz uses four electric motors for power
The Zoox Boz is set up for four passengers and no drivers
Zoox envisions the Boz as an on-demand autonomous city car service
A spoiler and taillights distinguish the rear from the front
Inside the Aeromobil flying car
The XchangE is Rinspeed's vision for a driverless car cockpit
The Casple-Podadera's rear wheels rotate to shrink its footprint
The full-length Casple-Podadera is 2.3-m (7.5-ft) long
The shortened Casple-Podadera measures 1.9 m (6.2 ft)
The Casple-Podadera is a Spanish design
The electric-powered Casple-Podadera has a range of 80 miles (130 km)
The Armadillo-T in folding mode
The Armadillo-T is a folding car designed by KAIST
The Hiriko Fold car becomes part of a German car-sharing program
The Aeromobil can refuel at regular car gas stations and fit into a standard parking spot
The Aeromobil's wings tuck back for driving
The Aeromobil V2.5 in flight
Inside the Aeromobil flying car
A 100-hp Rotax 912 engine powers both the rear propeller and front wheels
The future of transport?
The future of transport?
View gallery - 50 images

The average concept car experiments with styling, technology and packaging to explore potential new ideas. Some concept cars take it a few steps further, not just rethinking the car but redefining what a car is and exploring ideas that could completely revolutionize the way we get from point A to point B. From vehicles that drive themselves, to cars that fly and fold, some of 2013's most interesting concept cars provided a lens into a very different future.

The mechanical chauffeur

The Zoox Boz is set up for four passengers and no drivers

We've been hearing about automated car technology for years, but the chatter picked up pace in 2013, with numerous automakers highlighting new self-driving technologies, revealing research vehicles and laying out future plans. There seems to be widespread agreement that fully autonomous cars will arrive within the next 12 years.

The manufacturers have been taking measured steps, but those not bound by the realities of existing technology and research and development costs (i.e. designers) have been pole-vaulting up the staircase to put us right in the car cabin of the future. The Zoox Boz presented the most comprehensive view of a fully autonomous vehicle that we've seen, and the upcoming Rinspeed XchangE promises another vision.

Inside the Aeromobil flying car

Both those concepts skip over the technological underpinnings and show the autonomous car from the passenger-formerly-called-the-driver's point of view, highlighting relaxing interiors that allow for more natural conversations, digital entertainment and full-commute naps. It's a future where all the driver has to do is forward a destination from his phone, hit the "start" button and sit back for the ride. The Zoox vision shows a car structure redesigned around the concept of automation – a low, windshieldless body with improved aerodynamics and symmetrical front and rear-ends.

We're certain to hear much more about the autonomous car and the technologies that will get us there as the 2014 auto show season gets underway.

When cars fly

Generation after generation of children have suffered adulthoods of somber disappointment because of the nagging lack of flying cars. Such cars have been a part of the "future" vision for decades but have yet to find their way to the "present." We're not all that confident that a Jetsons-like cityscape of stilted high rises and flying buggies is on the immediate horizon, but 2013 showed some steps toward the dream.

The Terrafugia Transition's wings fold into the body, allowing it to drive on the streets

In August the Terrafugia Transition made its first public appearance, doing a flight demo at the EAA AirVenture Oshkosh. The Transition isn't the airborne commuter-car folks have been wishing for, but more of a light airplane that transforms into a street-legal vehicle and fits in a single-car garage. The two-seat car essentially eliminates the need to drive to or get dropped off at the airport, allowing the private pilot to drive himself right in his plane. The wings fold up for ground travel, and engine power is redirected to the wheels from the propeller. Inside, the driver-pilot will find a familiar steering wheel and floor pedals for driving, along with a stick and rudder pedals for air control.

As the "Transition" name hints, the road-capable airplane isn't the end of Terrafugia's vision for the flying car. The company's TF-X concept is designed with vertical take-off and landing hardware, eliminating the need for a runway and airport. The company believes the vehicle can be designed in such a way that it takes only five hours to learn how to operate, self-avoids hazards like other flying vehicles and bad weather, and auto-lands itself.

The TF-X is Terrafugia's vision for a flying commuter car

The TF-X concept looks like the start of the flying car that you and three passengers can hop in at home, fly to the mall - with speeds up to 200 mph (322 km/h), that mall could be a state away - and commute back home with in time for dinner. If Terrafugia's eight to 12-year TF-X development estimate holds up, those that can afford it are in for a tough choice between fully autonomous road cars and flying commuters in a decade or so.

Other flying car concepts we visited this year included the Aeromobil 2.5 prototype, which is similar to the Transition in function, and the Zee.Aero design that has vertical-takeoff capablities.

Trains gone wild

Thanks to the fact that it was presented by start-up virtuoso Elon Musk, and not just some kooky designer or skunkworks team no one's ever heard of, the insane-train called the Hyperloop was one of the biggest transportation headlines of the year. While the specifics of the train's feasibility and future are up for debate, its purported benefits are very clear: Los Angeles to San Francisco in 30 minutes by way of levitating pods being shot through elevated structural tubes at 800 mph (1,288 km/h). The pods would leave every 30 seconds, so there would be no need for reading schedules or sitting in the station. With the possibility of bringing cars directly onto the Hyperloop, commuters could theoretically drive on in LA and drive right off into San Francisco.

A sketch of Elon Musk's Hyperloop

Beyond California, Hyperloop technology could be used to create fast, convenient connections between other major cities within about 900 miles (1,448 km) of each other. That opens up all kinds of intriguing routes: Washington to NYC, San Francisco to Seattle, Chicago to Toronto, etc.

All that sounds a little too good to be true now, when the Hyperloop is little more than a white paper, but the idea of shotgunning back and forth from New York to Boston for a lunch meeting, or St. Louis to Chicago for the Cubs-Cardinals game is certainly enough to keep us dreaming.

A start-up called Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, Inc. has stepped up to develop a prototype and expects to have it done within two years. In the meantime, Gizmag's Brian Dodson provides an in-depth look at how the Hyperloop works.

Transformers: less than meets the eye

The folding car was another trendy concept in 2013. Such cars use folding mechanisms to fit into parking spaces typically reserved for motorcycles while offering larger driving layouts for space and stability.

The Armadillo-T in folding mode

The most radical folding action of the year belongs to the Armadillo-T designed by the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). The rear of the helmet-shaped car closes up and over the front-end like a big mechanical eyelid, cutting its length from 2.8 m to 1.65 m (9.2 to 5.4 ft). The folding action is controlled remotely via a smartphone, which can also be used to reposition the car, allowing three individual Armadillo-Ts to fit in one parking spot.

At 2.3-m (7.5-ft), the full length of the Casple-Podadera is right in between the lengths of the folded and unfolded Armadillo-T. This folder uses a simpler shortening mechanism in the form of retracting rear wheels that slide under the body and cut its footprint down to 1.9 m (6.2 ft).

The Casple-Podadera is a Spanish design

The future of the Armadillo-T and Casple-Podadera were both big, bold question marks when we looked at them, but a third folding car has laid a bit more track. The Hiriko Fold was inked into a car-sharing program with Deutsche Bahn about a year ago. A Japanese-market version is also in the works. The Fold's extendable rear-end tucks underneath the pod-like cabin, cutting the overall length from 2.5 to 1.5 m (8.2 to 4.9 ft). The car's windshield serves as its door, so you don't even have to worry about banging into car or concrete in a particularly tiny spot.

The Hiriko Fold car becomes part of a German car-sharing program

The neighborhood know-it-all

The car will gain more and more awareness of its surroundings as it gets more and more sensors, Car-to-X communications and self-driving elements. Another function of these technologies that a few designers have experimented with is interactivity, not just with other cars and the greater transportation infrastructure, but with nearby humans.

Daimler's concept uses the car's sensor systems to create a sort of safety infrastructure in the city

The information gathered from onboard sensors and the cloud could not only prove valuable for the driver and greater driving ecosystem, but also for those around a parked car. Daimler's smart car-bot vision uses the car's advanced sensor set (GPS, radar, cameras, etc.), along with communications equipment like external projectors, to share information. For instance, it could monitor traffic with its radar and camera systems to help pedestrians cross the street, or provide GPS-derived directions. Daimler provides no indication of how those systems might be powered in its conceptual vision, but presumably the car would have to be hooked into the grid to prevent battery drain.

This Willie bus uses LCDs to show route information

About as a rough a draft as Daimler's interactive car, the Willie bus concept brings the idea of information-sharing to the larger scale of a city bus. The concept's LCDs are built into its structure, running from end to end. Many of the ideas for usage are non-interactive (i.e. advertising), but designer Tad Orlowski shows them communicating routes and schedules and mentions the idea of using touchscreen displays to provide interactive access to information.

Man in the machine

New car technology has been pulling the human away from the machine for decades. Electrical systems and computers have taken much of the mind and muscle out of driving, assisting or completely taking over functions like gear shifting and steering. With the growth of automated driving systems, the human element is facing outright extinction. However, there's also a movement to use new technologies to forge a closer, more intimate relationship between human and machine, a movement that's largely manifested itself in small personal mobility devices. These concepts are designed to be more closely connected to their drivers, serving almost as an extension of the body.

The Toyota FV2 concept

"Toyota envisions an ever-developing driver-vehicle relationship similar to the relationship of trust and understanding that a rider might have with his or her horse," Toyota says of its FV2 concept.

As creepy as it sounds at first, Toyota qualifies that relationship by both physical and emotional elements. On the physical side, the FV2 relies on its driver's forward-back and side-side movements in place of a steering wheel. It also heightens the driver's sense of awareness with sensor-based warning systems and an augmented reality windshield. Things get emotional in that the FV2 is designed to use voice and facial recognition to learn the driver's moods and make driving suggestions and exterior appearance changes based on those moods.

The FV2's augmented reality windshield helps the driver assess his or her environment

The new Honda UNI-CUB β is a much smaller personal transporter package that relies on body motion for control of its omni-directional driving wheel system, which moves diagonally as well as in the directions of the cross. Gizmag's founder Mike Hanlon found the system to be so intuitive as to be borderline telepathic.

Gizmag's Mike Hanlon learns to UNI-CUB (Photo: Stephen Clemenger / Lets C Design)

These concepts may never come to fruition, and they'll likely evolve a great deal if they do. What's clear now is that they provide an intriguing starting point for a long conversation about the future needs and forms of public and private transportation. Looking back over the year helps us look ahead to what new twists and turns might await in 2014 and beyond.

Let us know which of these concepts you'd love to see become reality, which ones need to be improved, and which need to be buried in 2013 and never spoken of again.

View gallery - 50 images
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Flipboard
  • LinkedIn
13 comments
jerryd
You have to wonder what these people have been smoking!!
Sadly little shown will be built, or maybe luckily in too many of them.
What is most cost effective will be lightweight composite vehicles with EV drive. Not sure how much else can compete with it as in yrs it'll be less expensive to buy and 20 percent the cost to run. Less as FF's get more pricey.
As for Trains you can get most of the hyperloop for much less cost and done right can take your RV, truck, car on it too if designed for it. Basically the gov builds the High Speed tracks just like they do interstates and everyone gets to use them with certified vehicles going 180-300mph. And that tech is here using air cushion lift and composite trains, trucks, etc.
Anyone who builds the self driving controls is libel for any crashes meaning they won't be made because of lawsuit costs..
donwine
When you read the manufacturers tag - will it say "assembled in the US by robots with parts made in China?"
ei3io
I have to wonder why only minimal vision informs too many of us too much of the time.
Luddism will always exist as technology marches on...
Transportation's evolution will find advances no one yet even envisions even though they are only a short time into the future having their roots 100s of years into the past.
Richard Auchus
I really like the Aeromobil, simply because they put style into the equation. The Transition looks terrible and awkward, but the Aeromobil? Thats sexy for the kind of car/road plane it is!
alien678
Puhlease... can you say hyperbole ?
For 30 years now an affordable system that would have been self sustaining in +/- 3 years has sat on the shelf , www.taxi2000.com was offered to Madison,WI in 1984 by Ed Anderson. Ed proposed an 8 mile system from Middleton, WI to the Madison Capital for 1 million $$$'s half his actual cost and the City of Madison was more interested in their parking ticket revenue and what about the 200 domiciled insurance co.'s and the 3000 doing business here... so puhlease... it's Christmas ... give me a break... it makes me ill to think of what coulda, shoulda, all ready been done here... can anyone tell where I can get a refund on an like new Mayan Calendar.
Slowburn
Roadable airplanes aren't flying cars and until they can have a fender bender without plummeting to the earth I don't want anybody having flying cars. Well designed blimps might work. but you would probably need parking lots that deflate and reinflate the balloon for compact parking.
@ alien678 It does not solve the biggest problem with mass transit systems, it does not provide door to door service. Plus I like leaving stuff in my car for later use.
Scott in California
I see all these cars are riding on roads that take up more and more real estate, and use a lot of $$$ to build. After the Loma Prieta earthquake in California (1989) a section of freeway was redesigned and rebuilt, at a cost of $17,000 per INCH!! of roadway.
The basic problem is that roads as we have in California, in advanced parts of the world, are simply not economically sustainable. Cars, and all these funny vehicles in this article, will sit unused for 95% of their "owned" existence. This is simply too much squandered wealth to have any sort of world that features 90% of the population enjoying a fulfilling humane life.
The Skud
Most of these little 'folding' vehicles will only be of use in the ever-crowded cities. Tiny cars like the Smart Car are useless on a highway or long trip. Those 'windscreen doors' have already proven a failure - drive too close to a garage wall and you're stuck! Remember at least one early bubble car? Flying cars would need so many safety built-ins they potentially could be a disaster. Already Mercedes and others have hundreds of thousands of cars with electrical faults and things from small fires to wrong-time speed crashes. I like high-speed rail but real estate space will never be any cheaper, and converting present-day rail carriageways would be chaotic during transition.
Edgar Walkowsky
No mention of Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) and Evacuated Tube Transit (ETT). Automating cars on the road is way more difficult than building a PRT system such as Ultra from the UK and Mister PRT from Poland or SkyTran from the U.S. All these systems are automated but separated from the road on slender guideways. There is a keen interest in PRT in India, they will end up with more advanced infrastructure than the "developed" world.
Slowburn
@ Edgar Walkowsky
Developing autonomously operating cars is cheaper than building the infrastructure for rail based PRC and and the evacuated tube simply costs to much to build for the efficiency to service the debt.