An industrial design company is trying to change the way we think about traffic and autonomous vehicles. Their design while still on the drawing board is called the Autonomobile and is basically a self driving lounge room:

http://organicconnectmag.com

While this is quite funky and even somewhat feasible, as I noted in my previous post we think that single passenger driverless vehicles will be more the norm due to their ultra low fuel costs.

Thanks to Paul Godsmark for the link.

Courtesy Mohammad P, this video by Apparatus Inc:

Interesting points:

- The video features localised interruption marketing. It could be the case that the occupant has specifically asked the vehicle to notify him when passing the chain of coffee shops, however.

- The car occupant switches between sport on a remarkably small screen..

- The concept largely ignores the prevalence of smartphones. Weather updates are not a realistic feature in a driverless car. Smartphones take care of this.

- Looking sideways would almost definitely give me car sickness.  Not sure about the readers.

My overall impression is that while the video is cool  it overestimates the amount of interaction that people will desire to have with their transportation.

We’ve had a fair amount of fun up to this point sharing some of our favorite Driverless Cars from around the world. Check out some other posts of ours to see past concept vehicles.

Today we present to you many that you may have missed – and some very cool ideas to boot.

The Transport as a Service model (TaaS) will mean that Driverless Car companies of the future will seek differentiation in order to win clients just as they do today. Some will compete on price, and we can easily imagine that they will be hyper-efficient, super-aerodynamic, light and tiny.

Others will push into the luxury space and be like rolling lounges, kitted out with luxurious leather and wood-grain fittings. It’s these kinds of imaginings which have gone into the images below. Hat Tip to Eco Friend for helping us to discover many of these:

Click Any Image To See The Full Size.

The ATNMBL - From Mike and Maaike  :

The seats facing outside would make me quick sick. I doubt I’d be the only one! A stylish vision, however.

Hat Tip To A Distinctive World

Name Unknown – From Forbes:

A touch more functional.

The Driverless Taxi By Peter Kubik

Hat Tip : Environment Team

The Guardian by John Bukasa of Casser Design

Complete lack of privacy, but it would suit sporting parades and others who want to be seen.

Hat Tip: Yanko Design

The Zagato

Not to be confused with the real world Zagato.

The iMove by Liviu Tudoran

What it would be like if Apple were to release a car:

Hat Tip : Car Guide Blog

The Autonomi

EV 2020 by Robin Long

Jaguar Mark XXI by Chris Pollard

This one pushes the boundaries of the imagination, however we can definitely see car-makers moving to develop vehicles that have efficiency as priority #1, #2 and #3. Given that form won’t be an issue any more, cars will most likely be sleek and could well be covered in solar panels.

Hat Tip : Car Body Design

Hey all! Sorry for the silence but the last few days have been news lite. Thankfully faithful reader Gabriel has chimed in today, sending us this awesome London Driverless Taxi concept.

Concepts are never as much fun as the real deal but the taxi angle is one that I have been hammering on this blog. I believe that for the day-to-day average citizen, the driverless car will kill the idea of private car ownership.

The images below are clickable and you will see the full size if you click on them.

The concept is great and we agree with most of it. The idea of cars stacking themselves on top of each other doesn’t appear quite realistic. This sort of technology would be incredibly difficult to implement in terms of practicality and feasibility.

The site this story came from, Tuvie, is simply awesome if you love to see people imagining a new world.

We loved the GM EN-V. It was small but oh so purty.

Now for something even better looking – the GM EN-V 2.0! It’s a concept car, sure, which is basically code for “don’t get your hopes up” BUT we like to think of it as having great potential. No longer balancing on two wheels, it feels a bit more like a normal car. While it’s not driverless – yet – we believe this is a model of the future.

GM is focusing this vehicle on China, especially some interesting concept cities which are on the horizon. With 2.5 million sales last year in China they are putting their first foot forward.

Is this what Driverless Cars will look like? We hope so.

(Oh and @GM – start sending us media releases like the other companies do. Tx)

One big thing predicted by most analysts of driverless car technology is that most transportation will be conducted in single-passenger vehicles.

Here’s some of our favourites. Most are only concepts but it’s fun to think about it.

LIT Motors C1 (currently a concept car, but production is planned. More info here)

GM – EN-V (concept car - more info here)

This one is technically 2 passenger but we love it, so it’s in. This vehicle has two wheels, using technology borrowed from the Segway in order to balance. The range is 25mi/40km but we can give battery tech a bit of time to work it out! In any case, most trips are less than that length.

Moville (concept - more info here)

Credit - Tuvie.com

Credit - Tuvie.com

Tango (limited production – more info here)

Credit - Unknown

Credit - Unknown

Honda 3R-C

Credit - Unknown

Volkswagon NILS

Credit - VW

Credit - VW

 MIT Citycar (now beginning production)

Credit : MIT