LA Carshow – it’s that time of year again

November 30, 2010

It’s been a while since the market of concept car design has been churning out new ideas – the grapevine has seen little more than tremors here and there with smaller companies joining the fight, but the famed LA Auto Show has been changing all that. The economic downturn is partly to blame for the lack of new concepts. Companies otherwise flashing the glitz and glamour have been keeping vigil on their purse-strings, but the combination of competition for the show and a brightening future in sales has kick started the ideas machine.

The automotive world is ready to dream big again and the 2010 LA Auto Show is proof that automobile manufacturers are jump-starting their creative juices once more.

After a couple of years of being stuck in an economic slump, automotive manufacturers are positive that their future is in the upswing.

Taken from this story in the National Web Inquirer. It looks like there’s been emphasis this year on “out of reach” – those cars that look sleek and trim, that we’re not likely to see any time in the next 10 or even 100 years. Concept cars of the future.

Introducing the Mercedes Benz Biome. Doesn’t it look dreamy? What is it that makes it so untouchable? It’s going to be grown!

What?

That’s right! Amidst all the recent hype about global climate change manufacturers are looking towards a greener future for the automotive industry – Mercedes are planning a car that is grown from a seed and only impacts the environment in positive ways – exuding nothing but oxygen for a start. Trees will be genetically modified in order to create the shell of the car which is to be known as bio-fiber cloth. It’s planned to run on BioNectar 4534 – a fluid that will use the car as a bounce-pad to collect energy from the sun and there is reportedly technology that would allow the harnessing of excess solar energy from trees – which will also be stored in the BioNectar.

The whole thing sounds like a comic strip to me, but if we’re on the edge of this sort of technology then all the better. Any help we can get with climate change is going to make the future a brighter place. Even so…

Growth from Two Seeds:
The interior of the Biome grows from Mercedes-Benz DNA in the front star, when it fuses with the seed. The exterior grows from the rear star, creating the shape. The wheels are grown separately from four unique seeds.

Unbelievable. There are also claims that at the end of the project the whole car will be able to rest peacefully on top of the compost heap. It just seems too good to be true!

Source – LOTS of interesting pictures.

By admin | Posted in Absurd, Culture, Gadgets, Pop-web, Rumour, The World, news, travel | Tagged , , | Comment (1)

One man’s trash…

August 31, 2010

Sometimes you’ll find that a car just isn’t enough, or that a lorry is overkill. Infact – for a lot of our travel, delivery and leisure needs a van is all that will do. The market is constantly changing to suit the needs of the industry and the work-a-day van driver. Van hire becomes more and more competitive as time passes, and designs are becoming more and more abstract.

There are those that enjoy putting spiky things on their chassis and lights all over the place so that they look like two tonne, steel creatures of the deep sea. There are others who are content with graffiti denouncing the passion of the owner, super heroes, cartoon characters… artists, musicians, landmarks… The list goes on. The most interesting versions in my mind are the ones evolved of a certain need. Putting money aside and getting down to the really gritty facts we have always found a way of making our best-lumbering-pals work for our specific needs.

At one end of the scale you can see classic bodgeries befitting of a scrapyard prince. The type of vehicle that will clang to a halt and clunk its very last gear change just as the job is done.

Now I don’t know anything of the particular history of this van but it looks to have been lovingly crafted to make ends meet. One man’s ingenuity has not only provided a safe shelter (which could be used for much more than transport at a pinch) but ideas for those at the top of the food-chain.

This sleek looking extendo-mobile is a concept design for a van with a bit more to give.

“Described as a mobile office and van in one unique package, funky features in the NV200 include a sliding cargo ‘pod’ extends to reveal an IT workspace and living quarters, a fridge powered by a small generator housed within the van, and a two-man tent – accessed from outside vehicle- housed at the base of the B-pillar behind the driver’s door.”

What begins as a means to an end will step forward as another great design for our pioneering slant on technology in technology. When push comes to shove, though, you have to make a decision: would you prefer to scale the sheer face of bankruptcy to flash the bling of what began as a Japanese Swiss-army-knife on wheels , or to swallow your pride and weld the best of your local scrappy to your trusty ruster? Van rental is the get out clause and probably the more sensible option. Besides.. if you’ve got the money to buy this snazzy van when it hits the shelves or enough time to weld one van to another, surely you’ve got the resources to design the next idea to go global?!

Get out there and show the world your bodgeries, maybe one day they’ll end up on the table of a major designer.

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Taeho Yoon makes stuff

May 27, 2010

Taeho Yoon is the name behind the MUON concept car. Another concept car, yes: but this one does tricks! Aside from looking about as spiffy as most of the designs we’ve seen off the presses these past few months, this car is supposedly capable of reading your mood. That’s right: when you jump inside it will cover all bases in order to make you a calmer driver. First of all: let’s take a look at her.

So it looks a little bit like a motorbike wearing a pair of green shades. The Muon is “optimally customized for physical and psychological condition[s]“, which all sounds fine to me, but the long and short of it seems to be that it will play different music depending on heart rate, and heat the chairs depending on the temperature outside. Seems to me like this is the sort of thing a politician or someone in business banking would drive: you have to be in a job that pays well, but stresses the buggery our of you.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but when I feel depressed in the car and I need something to perk me up, I can just put some of my favourite music on? I wonder how many hundreds of thousands this vehicle would end up costing to ened up covering my back on the “press play” front. I’m not entirely impressed: especially seeings as you’re supposed to set it all up before hand “This is the music you play when I’m happy, this is my pulse when I’m unhappy”. The whole thing seems like a nice idea and all, but it seems counter intuitive. It’s not telling me anything I don’t know (telling me what sort of a mood I’m in? that’s about the only thing I’m the best in the world at judging), and it’s not really doing anything spectacular (I promise: I’ve been able to use a CD player since I was a kid), but it does seem to mention connecting to the internet on it’s own.. hmm.. unless that information is being sent to someone for some sort of research..

Everything’s made from envrionmentally friendly stuff, which “gives one an impression to be in the greenhouse of the garden”. The only time I’d EVER want to associate driving in anything even SLIGHTLY resembling a greenhouse would be with Jeremy Clarkson and his eco-friendly ‘concepts’. Incase you hadn’t guessed, I’m not sold on this one.

Taken from here, this is a chunk of chat released by designer Taeho.

It’s 7:30 a.m. Angela gets in Muon and grabs the steering wheel, which senses her pulse and checks her pupils to play a Bossa Nova music on the Internet sympathizing with her a bit depressive feeling. She has had the car optimally customized for her physical and psychological condition in the first place. Now the AI of the car has learned she loves Bossa Nova music when she feels under the weather like today. The 100% personalized thermo sensor and heating wire in her seat warm her body in the freezing cold weather in a winter morning of New York. She was from a quiet countryside in South Carolina and followed the course of nature since birth. She would think of New York as a hell covered with concrete without any trace of earth. This most unfavourable environment has brought her atopic dermatitis and depression without her noticing. Before she bought this car, the only place where she would feel spatially and temporally relaxed was her workplace, the botanic garden. A warm and fresh breeze of phytoncide is given off from the vent on the IP face as if it were comforting her depressed soul. Besides, the interior design is her favourite part as it is made of complete environment-friendly material that makes her feel as if she was in the greenhouse of the garden. When she looks out of the emerald window, New York is no longer a hell to her. She is driving her Muon to go home during the upcoming winter vacation. She starts another day hiding the excitement of family reunion.

Sounds.. great!? I suppose you could buy a few as financial investments and sell them off when the world looks back on our “WTF ARE YOU ON ABOUT?” years.

Source.

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