Archive for the ‘Design’ Category

A couple of weeks ago, we mentioned the "YouthMobile 2030" design challenge associated with the 2009 Los Angeles Auto Show. At the time, we highlighted GM's "Car Hero" entry, but Audi's designs deserve mention, too. The company has submitted two vehicles, the eOra and the eSpira, both of which were created with tomorrow's social media-savvy drivers in mind. In fact, they were designed via social media itself: Audi solicited suggestions for the models from its 400,000 Facebook fans. Check the video below to see if design-by-committee is all it's cracked up to be.

[Audi, MotorAuthority]

The Los Angeles Auto Show is just a few weeks away, so now seems as good a time as any to skim through the submissions for its 6th Annual Design Challenge. This year's theme is YouthMobile  2030 -- the goal being to envision vehicles two decades down the road. Participating studios include Audi, Honda, Mazda, Nissan, Toyota, and GM, whose entry is the "Car Hero" concept pictured at left. As you might presume for concept that alludes to a popular videogame, "Car Hero" works like a game, wherein drivers begin by letting the vehicle navigate on its own, but eventually gain the ability to control the car themselves by demonstrating some driving...

It's no secret that Volkswagen plans to kill off the Passat and replace it with a larger, purpose-built-for-Americans midsize sedan codenamed, in a fit of startling creativity, the New Midsize Sedan, or NMS. But what the NMS will look like has been left to little more than monochrome watercolors and line-art sketches so far.

That is, until Brazilian designer Irmao do Decio put mouse to pixel and came up with this rendering. Of course, it's completely unofficial and theoretical, but his methods are sound enough to give us an idea of what may be in the works.

Building on the base of the latest official sketch, do Decio then took inspiration...