While tailpipes and driveshafts already look like being consigned to history along with the internal combustion engine, new digital technologies are poised to have an even more dramatic impact on car interiors and exteriors.
At the end of 2017, Japanese car manufacturer Nissan unveiled an all-electric concept car, the IMx, to demonstrate just how car design may change in the near future. “We see technology as giving us freedom from the things that hold us back as human beings,” says Alfonso Albaisa, SVP for global design at Nissan. “The IMx is an inspirational statement that expresses the life-changing possibilities of these new technologies.”
Nissan Motor Co. Ltd.
When Nissan’s ProPILOT mode for autonomous driving is activated, the steering wheel is stowed inside the dashboard, which becomes a private entertainment center, and the seats recline to give occupants more space.
When in driving mode, artificial intelligence enables drivers to control the car and infotainment systems with eye movements and hand gestures. On the exterior, the IMx’s sporty but stable silhouette suggests the power and rapid acceleration that are the hallmarks of electric vehicles.
“With the IMx, we are expressing what the next generation of autonomous EVs and connected cars may look like,” Albaisa says. “We are not just chasing the dreams of customers. We are chasing the dreams of mobility for whole societies and communities. “Human beings see objects as reflections of themselves, and the car itself is the ultimate dream of humans for freedom.”
“It is a thrilling time to be a designer. We are being asked to dream.”
Alfonso Albaisa, SVP for Global Design, Nissan Motor
According to Albaisa, the concept vehicle represents the response from Nissan’s designers to the company’s Intelligent Mobility vision of how cars will be driven, powered and integrated into society.
It is a vision that has already begun to transform the world of personal transport: the Nissan LEAF is the world’s best-selling zero-emissions vehicle and enjoyed a redesign in 2017, gaining enhanced aerodynamics, a sharper, more dynamic look and an overall sense of effortlessness and flow. “The new design positions the LEAF as the cutting-edge flagship of Nissan Intelligent Mobility,” Albaisa says
As published in TIME magazine
