I just know Freepers will be lining up to buy this beauty.
Posted on 09/30/2005 10:09:36 AM PDT by Millee
Tired of all those three-point turns? Nissan Motor Co. could have a solution.
Japan's second-biggest auto manufacturer has developed a concept car featuring an egg-shaped cabin atop a wheeled platform that can swivel 360 degrees, doing away with the need to reverse when emerging from narrow spaces.
"With this feature, parking in tight spots is a cinch," chief designer Masato Inoue told reporters at a sneak preview of the bubble-shaped, three-seater electric car this week.
The car, named Pivo after the word "pivot," operates on an experimental system called drive-by-wire, which eliminates the mechanical linkages between cabin and chassis to enable steering, braking and shifting through electronic signals.
The system is the car's version of fly-by-wire technology, which has controlled commercial jets for more than a decade.
Nissan will showcase the Pivo at the Tokyo Motor Show, which opens to the public Oct. 22.
At the preview this week in Zama city, near Tokyo, a driver slid the 2.7-meter-long (8-foot) Pivo into a tight imaginary parking spot, then rotated the cabin with the push of a button to face "backwards" to come out of the space in one motion.
"With the Pivo concept, we want to demonstrate the myriad possibilities that drive-by-wire could achieve," Inoue said.
Shiro Nakamura, Nissan's celebrity design chief, said Friday the real-world application of the concept could be but a decade away.
"Who knows, in 10 years our March (or Micra, subcompact car) could look like this," he said at a media event at Nissan's showroom in Tokyo's Ginza shopping district, where the car was being prepared for display to the public.
Other auto manufacturers such as General Motors Corp. and DaimlerChrysler AG have also developed drive-by-wire concept cars featuring cabin interiors that resemble cockpits.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
There's a conspiracy for ugly cars to take over the world, I read about it in "The Protocols of the Elders of Scion."
The SUV's are gathering at the corner, eyeing the Pivo with a hungry look.
Homomobile.
Reminds me of "The Homer"
Rush will need to update the song "In A Yugo" to "In a Pivo."
I bet it would be a big hit in Russia since "Pivo" in Russian means "Beer."
I have just the plate for it.
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah
No, no seriously..
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah
YOu have to admit, the idea of putting the kids in their own enclosed bubble where you couldn't hear them was a darn good one.....
Toyota already has a version of their Prius hybrid in Japan which will park itself. Seriously.
I keep thinking about the films of people going back and forth 20 times to get out of a space. Now, imagine they are in this car, with the cab spinning around each time so they are facing forward.
How many times before they are so dizzy the just run into the car "in front" of them?
Why...how... just..... damn.
I am so impressed, my nickname will be changing to Micraphile...
Is it supposed to look like some sort of mutant "Hello Kitty"?
Yes, it was. That - and the giant air horn. I'd like to have one of those every time I get stuck behind an aging Volvo with Vermont plates and a faded Kerry sticker lumbering along at 62mph in the fast lane.
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