Hold your palm above the sensor and move it sidewise to browse the options on the screen. To choose, make a fist. Driving back home after a hard day at work, you lose focus and are about to cross over to the wrong lane. The wheel comes to life and keeps you steady. You can’t gauge the distance between the car in front and run the risk of denting its rear—except you don’t. The vehicle-to-vehicle connection between both cars will maintain safe distance (the wonders of 5G). Now a pedestrian jaywalks. You are late to see it, but your car is not. It stops and resumes after she has crossed. Then there are other tricks like turning the air-purifier on, or turning on the music in your home which you get done through voice commands while you are reversing your ride into the garage (this, too, fully-assisted).
All this the Haval Vision 2025 Concept of Great Wall Motors, the Chinese carmaker which made its India Debut at the Auto Expo 2020, can do. Going by the concept cars on display at the Auto Expo 2020, in five years’ time (maybe a little longer) it is likely most cars will be smart, connected, and autonomous. They agree in design more or less. Sleek, smooth lines characterise the exterior. Inside, striking is the minimalist dashboard—just a screen of the proportions of a tab, and the wheel. Some don’t sport side mirrors (Haval Vision 2025 Concept). In its place are small cameras.
There are extraordinary rides, too. Hyundai’s Elevate (which first made an appearance at last year’s CES) can walk. The front seats in MG Motor’s Vision I Concept face the rear seats. A business meeting on the go? Here are some of the concept cars that are on display at the Auto Expo 2020:
Le Fil Rouge is French for red thread. It could also mean common theme. HDC-1, which is designed according to the golden ratio, embodies sensuous sportiness, according to the carmaker: a blend of the four elements in car design: proportions, architecture, styling and technology.
It’s reinvented the wheel, for the “wheel” work like legs. Hence, no terrain is out of bounds for the Elevate.
Kite is an amphibious electric buggy which the South Korean carmaker developed with the Istituto Europeo di Design in Turin, Italy.
This is an MUV that is 5G-enabled and is autonomous. This debuted at last year’s Shanghai Motor Show as Roewe Vision-i.
