LA Auto Show Design Challenge

By Ben Pulman

Motor Shows

22 October 2007 02:10

I thought all the wackiness was out in Tokyo?

You were wrong. The Los Angeles Auto Show starts in mid-November and for the past three years has run a design contest to see what cars could look like in the future. This is the fourth year of the Design Challenge and this year contestants were asked to envision the ‘RoboCar of 2057’. And we’re not talking teenage wannabe designers either, but the major design studios of southern California. Audi, General Motors, Mercedes and Volkswagen took part, as well as the majority of the Japanese car manufactures. The winner will be announced at the LA show. Above is the GM OnStar Ant. The OnStar technology allows vehicle-to-vehicle communication to eliminate accidents and improve traffic flow while the three wheels allow easy manoeuvrability, and it's no bigger than an average family saloon. But click ‘Next’ to see something a lot more wacky…

We’d give it to Mazda because what it has designed doesn’t even look like a car. It’s called the Motonari RX and apparently ‘integrates the driver with the vehicle allowing the driver to experience the road psychosomatically’. Basically you experience the drive on a deeper, mental level. The wheels allow 360 degree horizontal movement and the whole car is formed around your body. Mazda reckons the driving position is akin to street luge, but to us it looks more like you have to lie on the ground, legs akimbo…

By Ben Pulman