You drive a car in the front, with another same (but smaller) car following behind… Do you love that experience? You should, honestly. Priced at $3,695 (so much!!), each trailer made by ACT looks likes small replicas of real cars, while they won’t cost you any fuel at all, but simply draw more attention to you…and your cars and trailers.

Buy it here

【Via】

One possible new tendency for car manufacturing announced at the beginning of 2012 is the smart fabric seat covers developed by researchers from Polytechnic School in Montreal, Canada. The new fabric has electrical properties that will change depending on where touched, so that it allows the drivers to control their radio volume via merely a simple swipe. It means the fabric might replace the nobs, buttons and dials commonly built in cars in the future, so as to offer us a more convenient way to control the car. As BMW is reportedly interested, we guess it wouldn’t be long for us to see the touch fabric roll out in future car models.

Designer: Polytechnic School in Montreal

A car, also a moving office, the transformed Mercedes-Benz is deemed as one the most extravagant offices around the world. Apart from its elegantly-decorated interior, the car is equipped with Mac mini, Sony 3D TV, Apple iPads, refrigerator, coffee maker, high quality sound system, PS3, iPod touch and other appliances as well, making it the No. 1 luxury combination of high-tech products nowadays. So what should we do on the car, to rest or to work? After all, the car is too comfortable to work in…

Designer: Brabus

【Via】

New method is put forward here to keep your cars away from theft, and it’s the Car Seat Identification technology developed by Japanese researchers.

Retrofitted with 360 different sensors to take into account information like your weight, the highest value of pressure on the seat and the way you contact with the seat, the seat can identify drivers while they’re sitting down, so as to judge whether or not the person sitting on it is the owner of the car. Only after the seat has assured you’re the owner, you can then start the car to move; if not, the car won’t be started at all. Even though the researchers claim the seat is able to accurately identify the person sitting in it 98 percent of the time, there’s still possibility that the owner won’t be allowed to use the car, which may result in inconvenience to us. Thus, to make the seat widely-used in the future, the researchers need to further develop it, taking other information like how the seat should deal with weight loss and car borrowing into account too.

Designer: Advanced Institute of Industrial Technology

What do you usually do during the boring time caused by traffic jam, to play your iPad, have a chat with beautiful ladies or just sit there without thinking anything? Maybe you should get some better alternatives, such as the Car Bluetooth Rearview Mirror Kit. It includes a 4.3 inch touchscreen, a built-in GPS navigation, multimedia on-the-go, DVR capabilities, and a wireless parking camera, once installed to replace your normal rearview mirror, the device would then allow you to play games in car. Isn’t that great? It offers you great pleasure while never taking up you too much space or costing you too much money.

Selling Price: $200

Buy it here

On the Tokyo Motor Show Toyota has unveiled its Fun-Vii concept, a futuristic vehicle that allows the drivers to change the exterior design “with the same ease as downloading an application”. But that’s not all, because the Fun-Vii also features magical exterior display technology that lets drivers to display information on any places inside the car. To make the Fun-Vii more functional and attractive, the car can even be customized, with many themes and an augmented reality function taking place of the traditional navigation system.

A light signal isn’t functional enough to help you communicate with other drivers? Well, possibly the LED Light Display can. It is composed of mesh grid with about 600 LEDs, which are controlled by an ATmega AT89C51 microcontroller and play the messages you’ve already stored in the system. That means, when driving on the road, you can inform those behind you to back off, go ahead or do other things you may want with words displayed by the LED light. See what? The communication between drivers would become easier and clearer now.

Apparently the Terrafugia Transition Flying Car is an advanced vehicle we’ll use in the future. It is literally a car with folding wings, thus it can both run on roads and flies in the air.

To match with different conditions of the land and the air, Terrafugia Transition’s tires and windscreens have been improved as well. It is said the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has already granted special exemptions for the Terrafugia Transition, so if you do have enough space to hold the flying car, then you can pre-order it and use it sometime next year.

Everybody knows what common vending machines can offer, but they seldom recognize that these machines can also provide some surprising things except for drinks and snacks. Actually, with weird vending machines collected from the world, people would easily get Marijuana, panty, gold, or even alive lobsters too.

Marijuana Vending Machine (the picture above)

Panty Vending Machine

Break A China

Judaism Vending Machine

Gold Vending Machine

Bike Renting Machine

Luxury Car Vending Machine

Toilet Paper Vending Machine

Lobster Vending Machine

Bugs Vending Machine

Egg Vending Machine

Link

1200 bottles of nail polish, 900 fake fingernails and 25 days – all those have resulted in these nail art advertisements for Kia’ new automobile “Picanto”. Fantastic.

On the Goodwood Festival of Speed held in Sussex, UK many visitors were firstly amazed by Gerry Judah’s 28-meter-high Jaguar E-Type sculpture rather than real cars shown there. The steel sculpture is mainly about a Jaguar E-Type car balancing on its front bumper, and it is made of half a kilometer of steel tubes that have a diameter of 1.2 meters.

Designer: Gerry Judah

Jon Salerno’s Habitat Micro Home provides a clever and practical way to expand the area of your living space. It uses a small car docked underneath a 100 square feet house to act as an extra room so that the total reconfigurable space inside the Habitat Micro Home would reach 132 square feet.

Moreover, with adjustable solar panels on the house’s roof, the Habitat Micro Home can produce and store electricity energy for daily use.

Designer: Jon Salerno

Let’s start a green journey—never using any kinds of fuel, but simply relying on wind power. Sounds incredible? Not necessarily, because Dirk Gion and Stefan Simmerer have already completed a 5,000km journey with their electric vehicle powered by wind. They built their car with both electricity-generating wind turbines and a kite, which produced enough electricity power for use during their 18-day trip.

Designer: Dirk Gion & Stefan Simmerer

More Information Here

Use our intelligence. We should do this because we can create innovative or even magical things with our talent, just as Sandy Sanderson makes these mini cars with old cans, metal wires and his imagination. So incredible!

Designer: Sandy Sanderson

This is a new kind of safety belt that incorporates an air bag and you’ll soon see it in Toyota’s Lexus LFA luxury sports cars. When inflates in a collision, the seat belt will offer you a more safer protection so that you can be kept away from high risks of hurt.

Designer: Takata Corp

Striving for a new breakthrough in technological innovation, the Energy Return Wheel designed by Brian Russell is an airless tire that can roll flat, save energy and most importantly never get flat during the moving. In that case, the number of traffic jam or traffic accident resulted by a flat tire would be greatly reduced.

Designer: Brian Russell

More Information Here

It is not merely a toy for fun, but also a teaching appliance that may tell you how a car runs on water. When assembled, the mini car will then separate hydrogen and oxygen and use the gas to power the vehicle. So with the car, kids can also find entertainment in teaching too.

Selling Price: $99.95

Buy it here

No body would give himself or herself up to the autonomous cars without struggle, but at least the latest news from Google can make us think twice before we refuse to have a try. According to Google, seven test cars have driven 1,000 miles without human intervention and more than 140,000 miles with only occasional human control. And the Google cars seldom come into accidents except one car that was rear-ended while stopped at a traffic light.

For more information, please check out the link here or the video after the jump.

Via

What could possibly go wrong? A red cloud appeared outside the car’s exhaust pipe as the vehicle roared away.

Actually these clouds are plastic car accessory designed by Amateur Human to display a car’s carbon emissions. Embedded with a series of lights, the cloud “Puff” will change into different colors according to the exhaust levels of the cars, green for the lowest and red for the highest. The system also allows the drivers to see the levels of their cars when connected to an iPhone, which can even track the data over time.

Designer: Amateur Human Design Studio

What wonderful good fortune kids today are enjoying, they can even own a classic luxury car as the adults do! But certainly the luxury cars for kids are only half scales. Designed for children over the age of 6 and small adults, these delicate cars are powered by 50cc gas or a racing kart engine, and all of them have an electric start, disk brakes and reverse gear, etc. Well, I can imagine how cool it would be to see my niece and her mother driving in two look-alike cars around the city!

A group of high school students from Automotive Design Studio, a unique class provided by Kansas City based DeLaSalle Education Center for high school students, has created a lightweight electric car that weighs less than 1,200 pounds, which is half the weight of 98% of most electric vehicles. Its body was shaped using a thin wire framework covered with a transparent skin made from a heat-shrinkable material, and that weighs only 39 pounds! Also due to its light weight, the DeLaSalle car is quite well known for energy efficiency, and it can achieve the equivalent of nearly 300 miles per gallon.

More Information Here

With rapid growth of auto industry, car decoration service is being improved day by day. Just as women wear artificial eyelashes to make themselves look better, the cute huge eyelashes here can make your cars more attractive, too. So cars, why not give me a wink?

Students from the Ohio State University have designed the world’s fastest vehicle. Shaped like a large bullet, the new car is powered by lithium battery but can reach a high speed of up to 291 miles per hour, which have beaten almost all the racing cars. Really incredible.

More Information Here

After about forty years of developing a perfect human-powered vehicle, engineer Charles Greenwood has finally come up with a hand-powered hybrid car that has a top speed of up to 60mph. It can seat up to four people: when there’re all four people on the travel, the car can run based on the human power; but when there’re fewer passengers, it can also use electric battery power for a better performance. So the car can be more eco-friendly when there’re more people driving it. Good news is that you’ll soon see this car on the road, as the HumanCar Imagine PS is expected to be on sale next year for £10,000 and the company has received 100 pre-orders. Till then, the Imagine PS will also has a touch-screen display with GPS and biometric data logging, computer, communications systems and other advanced equipment. So do you want one, too?

Designer: Charles Greenwood

Via 

How should car manufactures promote their new products, when nowadays they have to face more and more competitions? Possibly you’ll soon have an answer after seeing what Los Angeles-based Nondesigns has done to help promote Lexus compact hybrid, CT 200h. The studio created an awesome pixilated Lexus, using 2500 anodized aluminum bars lacquered with blue green on one side and yellow mica on the opposite. All of them were cut into specific lengths and inserted into their locations in the illuminated platform, therefore creating a stylish car that features a glowing effect of colors on its surface. More importantly, the viewers would experience a gradual change in color from gold to organic-blue when they walk around the car. As a result, everyone that has seen the new Lexus will be deeply impressed and we bet most of them would also want to own one.

Designer: Nondesigns

Unless you’ve left home without your glasses, you’ll no doubt find the Poo-powered VW Beetle running through the streets of Bristol and get impressed with the eye-catching slogan on its smart body which says that “(The car is) Powered by your waste”! Powered by methane gas that is generated during the sewage treatment process, the new VW Beetle is announced as a “breakthrough in the drive to encourage sustainable power”, when many other automakers are also developing new sources of energy to take the place of regular motor petrol. But will the “Bio-Bug” perform as well as petrol-powered cars? Of course it can. It is reported that the new Beetle’s maximum speed is 114 m/h, and it would travel 10,000 miles every year if 70 homes in Bristol provide waste to power it.

More Information Here

The Maverick Flying Car is not something that you can merely see in the sci-fi (science fiction) movies, as you will see them in the skies of the United States or England during the next 12 months. It features an integrated ground and aerial controls, making it a cool personal mobility that can be used in two modes. The Maverick Flying Car is also built with a unique wing deployment system, which provides lift when the propeller generates thrust.

But to drive such a car, you have to own both a civilian driver’s license and an S-LSA/E-LSA certification. So have you been ready for it?

More Information Here

Mercedes Arrow is a two-seater recreational vehicle designed by Felipe Palermo. It comes with two stunning features, one of which is the bobsleigh-shaped body and the lightweight materials which make the vehicle to run like an arrow from a bow on the road. And the other feature is the combination of TANDEM and MAGLEV technology, due to which the car’s body will tilt left and right to minimize the wheels tilt angle when Mercedes Arrow takes sharp corners.

Designer: Felipe Palermo

Taking the zero-emission vehicles to a new level, more and more automakers are developing vehicles that are powered by pedals, and one of the latest designs is the Human Powered Vehicle by Todd Dawson. It’s a double-duty vehicle, functioning as both a community car and a tradesman’s vehicle, and you can easily shift the vehicle between those two forms by moving and folding the seats in the back. The transformable seats also enable the vehicle to be used in different variants, ranging from a four person vehicle to a single person vehicle.

Designer: Todd Dawson

Let’s view the FIFA World Cup from a different perspective -that is, regard it as parts of the advertising campaigns -then we may experience something new but still exciting.

【World Cup Cars】

As one of the 2010 FIFA World Cup’s sponsors, the Hyundai built these two football themed cars to promote the competition.

【World Cup Billboard】

Sony promises that the 2010 FIFA World Cup will be filmed with 3D cameras.

【Paper Ball】

The creative idea comes from one of the newspapers in New Zealand, which inspires the readers to change the paper into a football.

【World Cup Bridge】

Adidas came with the impressive football themed bridge to promote the World Cup.

【World Cup Beer】

Let’s toast to the success of the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

【World Cup Celebration】

Awesome advertisement from Lynx / Axe, who believes that girls may go much crazier if the football players use the perfume produced by Lynx / Axe.

【Nike World Cup Ad】

The moment lasts a second. The legend lasts forever.

【World Cup Ball】

The giant ball was built by Adidas in China for the 2006 World Cup football tournament.

【World Cup Sign】

Watch out, someone is playing the football hundreds of feet ahead.

【2010 FIFA World Cup Ad】

Welcome to South Africa! It is the new home for football.

【World Cup Bus Stop】

Another advertisement for the 2006 World Cup that expected Brazil to put the ball in the net.

We all know that the cars are expected to run faster and faster, taking us to our destinations in the shortest possible time. But who knows how fast a car actually can be? Recently, the Renault has offered an answer via its latest print campaign that comes with a simple but impressive editorial—”Get There Faster”. To make sure that these ads would manage to attract the consumers, the designers from Publicis have combined photography with some Photoshop retouching skills, having famous buildings represent as flowing sand inside each hour-glass.

Designer: Christian Kuzman, Stephan Ganser, Volker Schrader, Konstantinos Manika

Nearly a quarter of all the advertisements we come across are about cars, but have you ever met some advertisements which uses real cars? Luckily you’ll see them here on I New Idea.

【Motorola RAZR Car Advertisement】

Strong BMW, but much stronger is the Motorola RAZR.

【F1 Car on a Building】

A giant F1 car rushes down a high building in Turkey.

【Sony Grass Car】

You drive a green car, you live a green life.

【Denver Water Car】

Clever water saving awareness campaign in Denver. Use ONLY what you NEED.

【K-Swiss Car Advertisement】

K-Swiss Car advertisement promotes a tennis tournament.

【SMART Car Vending Machine】

Giant vending machines from which you can get real SMART cars.

【Universal Studios King Kong Advertisement】

Large footprints and a crushed car appeared on Santa Monica beach, to attract publicity for King Kong 3-D.

【Mercedes Car Billboard】

We’re Mercedes, we’re unique!

【Formula 1 Bus Stop】

The F1 bus stop was built to promote Formula 1’s first ever night race in Singapore.

【Nike Car Advertisement】

Created by Nike for the FIFA World Cup.

【Alfa Romeo Shopping Cart】

A MiTo car was put inside the shopping cart, during a promotion campaign held in Belgium’s busiest shopping center.

Via

It is BMW Z4. You’re totally right. But have you noticed something different the BMW car has compared with others? Oh my god, it’s indeed made out of stone but still features transparent glass windows! So we bet it must be the world’s heaviest BMW.

The full size replica was spotted in Beijing, China.

There’re various ways to show your love for cars, for example, you can frequently have them cleaned and waxed, or adorn the cars with interesting stickers. But have you ever seen somebody build a house that strikingly resembles his car? That’s just what architect Markus Voglreiter has done recently. Apart from the unique appearance, it is also a green building, using “a ‘3 liter’ energy-efficient heating and insulation technique that optimizes all current building technologies, drastically reducing energy consumption.”

Designer: Markus Voglreiter

More Information Here

Low-emission, and self-repairing, these two features are enough to make Audi A9 Hybrid Concept one of the cars most expected in the future. Designed by Spanish car designer Daniel Garcia, the Audi A9 will do a much better work than Audi’s current flagship model A8.

Its windscreen and the roof are made from nanotech material that can automatically repair itself when damaged. Powered by a hybrid engine, the vehicle will result less pollution than usual ones. Other character also includes bodywork with a unique “electronic paint”, which means you can change the vehicle’s color via simple touch of a button. Wow, all those sound great!

Designer: Daniel Garcia

Excited about the cool Renault 2010 Sand Jumper? Well, continue reading then, coz the following information is much more exciting.

The vehicle is completely eco-friendly, not only powered by renewable electricity generated from the nano solar paint sprayed on its body, but crafted from recycled PET bottles and other recyclable materials to minimize the pollution.

According to the designers, the vehicle will get fully charged in 8 hours in most cases, or in just 90 minutes with the help of the quick charging mechanism.

Designer: Luis Pedro Fonseca

As the cities get crowded and polluted, numerous automakers and designers are trying to tackle the problem of moving people around efficiently while not using materials that are harmful to the environment. And so is the Brazilian designer Ricardo Fedrizzi, who has recently sent in the images of his “Bug” concept mini car. It is a two-seater auto that is designed to go on a charge, making it a zero emission car for the city. Another point worth noting is the recyclable and renewable materials used to make the body of the car, which greatly reduces the vehicle’s weight. Besides, Fedrizzi’s concept also features an aerodynamic shape to maximize its performance. Pity that it is only a concept at present and we may wait for days to see the practical car hit the market. But who cares? Let’s just wait and see.

Welcome to the cool looking Falcon Concept Car. It’s futuristic, it’s magnificent, and most importantly, it’s powered with jet propelled engines. Yups, it’s a perfect combination of the racing car and the aircraft. Allowing an efficient driving on busy urban roads, the engines are also designed to push up the rear end of the vehicle to an upright position. When the engines are turned off, Falcon would rest in a vertical position as the SEGWAY does, taking up less space than conventional vehicles.

Designer: Samir Sadikhov

Designed by American designer Jacob McMurry, Alfa Romeo FastBack Sedan 2017 Concept is a futuristic sedan while “inspired by the design of cars of ’30s competition cars and also by the famous Venice Carnival.” Coming with a glass ceiling and the side panels that can change their degree of transparency, the cool sedan no doubt is one of fabulous cars expected in 2017.

Designer: Jacob McMurry

What would the personal vehicle look like in the future? Nobody could give us an exact answer but we could get a preview with Sergio Luna’s ‘2028 One’ car. Coming from the Michelin Challenge Design 2010, ‘2028 One’ is a single-seater for inter-city transportation. Based on the Segway mechanism, the lightweight vehicle is compact enough for an easy driving. Though it adopts a joystick, the car could also be entirely controlled by a computer.

Designer: Sergio Luna

More Information Here

In-car Video Game, In-car PC, as well as the Swivel Car Tray, seemingly these products are gradually changing cars into a movable house with everything we may need. Designed to hold your food, drinks and other necessities during your driving, the Swivel Car Tray comes with a round plate on top and a backing bar whose height and angle could easily be adjusted.

Selling Price: $10.99

Buy it here

Do you think a sunshade for your car is enough, say, just protecting your car from the hot sun while without doing anything else? Well, if that’s the case, you must have a look at the concept ‘Shelf’ by Leon Zhu. It is a shade that collects solar energy, which is used to provide energy for the car’s electronic systems and air conditioning system. Of course, the sunshade could be easily folded and stored in your trunk when not in use.

Designer: Leon Zhu

It is commonly believed that more people would have been hurt or killed if it were not for the protection we get from airbags. And in order to give an extra protection to passengers on the backseat, the world’s first inflatable seatbelt has been invented recently. At present, experiments are being taken on to find out whether or not the new belt is effective enough, and over 90% people have claimed that it makes them feel safer. And observation from experts is almost the same, pointing out that the inflatable seatbelt is particularly effective in preventing broken ribs, internal damage and bruising in children.

How can we protect our bikes/cars from being stolen? Just try these stickers. They can make your beautiful bike/car look rusted and scratched. I believe that no thief would like wasting time on it.

Caravan is good for traveler, but in case you arrived in a strange place and intend to have an interesting excursion, the caravan isn’t a good vehicle. You need a small car.

This unique design can fulfill your expectation. With it, you need not to drag the home part all the time, you can simply detach the cockpit and enjoy a fun ride of a small vehicle.

Designer: Christian Susana

Sitting in the car can protect you from getting wet. But the moment you get in or out of the car during a shower of rain, being wet is inevitable. This brilliant Rainvisor is designed to resolve this problem. It is mounted on the top of the car door and the folding structure will unfold into a surface to offer you better protection.

Designer: Jeon Sung-Su， Kim Ki-Pil，Lee Tae-Hoon & Ku Ja-Yun

Sitting in the rear of the car is pretty boring, so you need some video game. But the background of the game is always the same. Need some change? You will like this one named carcade. Designed by Berlin University of Arts students Nicolas Fischer, Martin Kim Luge and Korbinian Polk, this game can capture the landscape outside the car with the camera and converts the it into the video game environment.

Make sure that you’re not driving the car while playing carcade.

Video after the break

Nissan unveiled the intelligent seatbelt. It can automatically feed the seatbelt as soon as the driver opens the door. In addition, upon abrupt steering or skidding, the seatbelt will be wound up to hold the passenger more securely.

The electric has been the most popular product of eco-friendly trend. As a matter of fact, except for the power source, reducing the weight of car is also a great idea to save energy. What is the lightest car in the world? Japanese says 150 kg.

The so-called Huvo car is made of steel, aluminum, carbon fiber reinforced plastic and ABS resin. According to the CEO, other companies trying to manufacture a comparable car would only be able to produce a vehicle weighing as much as 300kg.

[source]

You may have your own opinion on the futuristic car. One of the most popular trends is that cars driven without oil. Beyond the basic common idea, shape is the most significant point. Maybe the shapes are out of your imagination, but you have to admit that, in the era of rapid development of technology, nothing is impossible.

This concept car called Ozone gives us a good example. I think I am gonna be like clothes rolling in the washing machine while driving. Its two wheels are driven by separated motors which are powered by fuel cell.

[source]