BMW's shape-changing concept

(Credit: BMW)

If you've seen the latest Knight Rider series recently, you may have noticed that K.I.T.T. (Knight Industries Three Thousand) embraces a type of nano technology that lets its outer shell change colors and temporarily morph into other car forms. How cool is that? If BMW has its way, that part of the reel world would be made real.

The carmaker's GINA Light Visionary Model, a two-seater concept car, wears a flexible, virtually seamless skin made of a textile fabric and stretched over a metal wire structure enforced with carbon fiber. This gives the owner the flexibility to change the shape of the car, from within and without, all with the touch of a button.

But we suspect that, by the time this ever hits the road, we may well have taken to the skies for our daily commute.

(Source: Crave Asia)

[opwann]

very cool.

[calculatorwatch]

awesome idea, I especially love the minimalistic look of the interior and the headlights that open like eyes, I don't like how the fabric folds into ripples when the doors open though

[egghead321]

But we suspect that, by the time this ever hits the road, we may well have taken to the skies for our daily commute.
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ya, we might already colonized other planet by that time

[yermom]

i know the guy's probably an engineer by trade, but that whole 'philosophy' bit at the end seemed so terribly scripted. it ruined the rest of the video.

[make_or_break]

No yermom, it's just classic Banglese. And he's a auto stylist by profession. At least he's no longer trying to design BMWs using furniture design as inspiration. Now he's using early WW I airplanes as a role model. Or hand gliders. Or sailboats. Whatever. Think he's been sniffing around the airplane dope a little too much, though. With all those motorized, pivoting subframe members moving about, I wonder if this thing will actually BE more efficient to build as he claims, or be as weight-saving as a conventional unit-body design. Just think about all those additional electric motors that can go kablooey. To think that all I once had to worry about was the sunroof mechanism, rear wing extender and window lifts (it's a Porsche, not a Bimmer).

[arogue]

Interesting article! Chris Bangle may have made a lot of ugly BMW's, but at least he's trying to think radically.


You spelled "real" wrong in the last sentence in the first paragraph.

[JasonS2008]

"Reel" is spelled correctly, its referring to the knight rider movie "reel" aspect being a "real" idea.