What do the concept cars of the LA Auto Show tell us about the future? - Ars Technica

• The Vision Mercedes Simplex re-imagines the 1901 Mercedes 35PS.

  Brian Won

• Welcome to the future?

  Brian Won

• Three-pointed star even in the details.

  Brian Won

• Clear rear wheels.

  Brian Won

• Clearly from the future, not the past.

  Brian Won

• Classic touches emphasized with the wood rim.

  Brian Won

• Strap your custom luggage to the back of the seat.

  Brian Won

• Classic homage.

  Brian Won

• Never in recent memory have Americans been so excited about a station wagon.

  Brian Won

• White and black theme with a little silver.

  Brian Won

• VW calls it the Space Vizzion, and gets flustered when you insist on calling it the ID.5.

  Brian Won

• This interior is actually quite close to production.

  Brian Won

• VW calls this fabric AppleSkin, and its made from apples.

  Brian Won

• The diamond theme continues in the taillights.

  Brian Won

• Skateboard holders.

  Brian Won

• Touch controls everywhere.

  Brian Won

• Fancy headlights.

  Brian Won

• Front grille.

  Brian Won

• Aero wheels.

  Brian Won

• Spacious backseat.

  Brian Won

• Lots of vents at the front of the Acura Type-S concept.

  Brian Won

• Chopped carbon fiber is another popular material this season.

  Brian Won

• It even extends to the wheels.

  Brian Won

• Angles, chopped carbon fiber, and big exhaust tips.

  Brian Won

• The Acura Type-S made its debut at this year's Monterey Car Week.

  Brian Won

• There's a Kia Niro, so of course Kia called its concept the Habanero.

  Brian Won

• Centrally mounted... grab bar?

  Brian Won

• Stylish corner light.

  Brian Won

• Did they forget to match the brake rotor to the brake caliper?

  Brian Won

• Back end is a little bulbous.

  Brian Won

• My, what a big mouth you have, Lexus LF-30.

  Brian Won

• Front angle shows off the vents and lines.

  Brian Won

• Many, many vents.

  Brian Won

• There are more vents in the doors.

  Brian Won

• You'll need a toothbrush to clean the brake dust. Maybe Q-Tips.

  Brian Won

• C-pillar detail.

  Brian Won

• Angular backside.

  Brian Won

• Custom-cut tires for concepts are always fun.

  Brian Won

• Angular interior.

  Brian Won

• More venting behind the front wheels. And the pedals say brake and speed.

  Brian Won

• Diamonds or triangles appear to be a theme this year—this is the Hyundai Vision T.

  Brian Won

• Illuminated grille badges are becoming more common.

  Brian Won

• "We pursue innovative solutions in design and add emotional value to our product experience through sensuous sportiness design language," said SangYup Lee, Senior Vice President and Head of Hyundai Global Design Center.

  Brian Won

• Y-shapes abound, extending to the custom tires.

  Brian Won

• Yes, it's a Hyundai.

  Brian Won

• Angle shot shows off the combination of lines and yes, a few curves.

  Brian Won

• Taillights.

  Brian Won

• Karma SC2 showing off the doors and long hood.

  Brian Won

• Obligatory 6-piston Brembos.

  Brian Won

• The door hinges look robust.

  Brian Won

• Rectangular steering wheels are everywhere.

  Brian Won

• Taillights.

  Brian Won

• Not sure you're going to see much from the rear window.

  Brian Won

• Floating wings on the roof.

  Brian Won

• This is the Infiniti Qs Inspiration. Something a bit like this will go on sale in 2-3 years.

  Brian Won

• It's going to be a plug-in hybrid, but for some reason Infiniti wants to find a word other than "hybrid" to describe the car's mix of electric and gasoline power.

  Brian Won

• Front wheel and brakes.

  Brian Won

• NHTSA would never approve these under current regulations.

  Brian Won

• Rear 3/4ths.

  Brian Won

• Concept car tires.

  Brian Won

• The back end is rather slab-sided.

  Brian Won

• Glass patterned roof.

  Brian Won

• Glowing seatbacks.

  Brian Won

• Roof makes photograhing the interior difficult.

  Brian Won

• Another rectangular steering wheel.

  Brian Won

• Going larger and larger with the Infiniti lettering.

  Brian Won

• The Toyota GR Supra GT4 Concept was made for SEMA earlier this month.

  Brian Won

• Stock headlights still look good on a race car concept.

  Brian Won

• Air ducts look like there's some potential left.

  Brian Won

• Brembo race brakes.

  Brian Won

• Obligatory spoiler.

  Brian Won

• Stock muffler and body work.

  Brian Won

• Caged but still quite a bit of the stock interior left.

  Brian Won

• Wide track: the Volkswagen Atlas Cross Sport R, built for the Baja 1000.

  Brian Won

• Fake headlights, rear light bar.

  Brian Won

• Lots of stickers: for windows, for lights...

  Brian Won

• Spare tire.

  Brian Won

• More stickers.

  Brian Won

• Alcon Racing brakes under billet wheels.

  Brian Won

Volkswagen provided three nights in a hotel and air travel from Los Angeles to Washington, DC for this story.

The prophets of doom are right; the auto show is fast becoming a spent force. I’ve been resistant to that idea, but this year’s LA Auto Show was as lackluster an event as I can remember. There was big car news these past days, all of which took place in LA: the Ford Mustang Mach-E, Volkswagen ID Space Vizzion, and of course the Tesla Cybertruck all made waves. But each met the public at an off-site event, and the Ford and VW were old news by the time the doors to the convention center opened for the first press day on Wednesday.

But we’re not going to focus on negativity today. Instead, we’re going to celebrate some of the four-wheeled eye candy at the show. The OEMs might not have brought much new to LA, but many of them did wheel out their takes on the future. Some are next year’s model with some added greebles, others are a view of decade or more from now, and require enabling technologies that aren’t quite there yet. Two are just race cars, built for SEMA and brought along to LA to make up the numbers.

No mind—I asked photographer Brian Won to walk the halls and, like the video game said, try to catch them all. And he did, with a couple of exceptions; BMW had put away its MNEXT and Kia's Futuron was also hiding somewhere. Most of the captions are his, and I urge you to check out the massive gallery at the top of this article—the pictures are where it's at.

Of the concepts captured by Brian, I think my favorite has to be the Vision Mercedes Simplex. It's inspired by the Mercedes 35PS—the original Mercedes—built by Emil Jellinek in 1901. It "symbolizes the transformation of the brand-specific luxury of Mercedes-Benz" according to chief design officer Gorden Wagener. I don't entirely believe that, but I love the elegance of the design and the pared-back detailing of this little open-wheel roadster.

Even the more out-there concepts have value. The supplier Magna used the show to announce the final of its first Magna Global Bold Perspective Award, which featured finalists from the US, China, and Europe, each looking 20-30 years into the future.

"The students' stuff happens at a 2D and model level and then it moves its way up. You can even see it in some of the form languages. Some of these ideas would be just amazingly out there, and then two years later somebody has a show car at Geneva," explained Larry Erickson, Global Director of Design, Magna Exteriors. "Everybody's trying for something new, you know. There's always this pressure of what's next," he told Ars.

• Zehapo "West" Zhang won Magna's first Global Bold Perspective Award. “Zhang’s thoughtful concept met the challenge of designing what vehicles might look like in 20 to 30 years by addressing the growing needs of overcrowded cities, while also creating a very personalized and human concept,” said Larry Erickson, global director of Magna’s Exteriors Design Group.

  Magna

• “Project Andarta” from European finalist Jake Lockyer of Coventry University in London.

  Magna

• “Swifter” from China finalists Bolin Sun and Gong Jinyun of Dalian University of Technology in Liaoning, China.

  Magna

Zehao "West" Zhang, a student at ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, won the design with a vehicle for urban nomads.

Magna's interest in design as a Tier 1 supplier is a way of spotting trends as early as possible, in order to be able to offer the appropriate products to OEMs. Erickson pointed to active aerodynamics—air dams that lower at speed, or moving surfaces in a car's underbody that channel or skirt the airflow to cut drag—as ideas that are appearing in production cars now which were once the preserve of the concept.

Listing image by Brian Won

Let's block ads! (Why?)

"auto" - Google News
November 24, 2019 at 11:30PM
https://ift.tt/35spZ9s

What do the concept cars of the LA Auto Show tell us about the future? - Ars Technica
"auto" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2Xb9Q5a
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update

Bagikan Berita Ini