Toyota Patents Winking, Laughing, Crying Car

theodp writes "If the patent system ain't broke, don't fix it: The NY Times/IHT reports that four inventors working for Toyota in Japan have won a patent for a car that they say can help drivers communicate better by glaring angrily at another car cutting through traffic, as well as appear to cry, laugh, wink or just look around." The article goes on to describe "...a car with an antenna that wags, an adjustable body height, headlights that vary in intensity and hood slits and ornamentation designed to look like eyebrows, eyelids and tears."

Comments

When is Microsoft going to patent...

[saskboy]

When is Microsoft going to patent...
The crying computer?

Install Windows ME and Office XP on a Pentium 166MMX, with 64MB of RAM, and it'd cry too. Sorry, that would be me crying, so I guess the patent would have to be for computers that make humans cry...

And some flavour of Linux could patent a computer that gives out free beer.

Re:What I want to know

[Proc6]

But what is the real impact of that? It's a visual distraction - and it causes people to gawk, horrendously tying up traffic. Worse, people have follow-up accidents: they're so busy looking out the side window that they hit something.

You mean like those pesky Vipers, Porsches, Lamborghinis, Ferraris, and HumVee's with 5 foot lift kits? YEAH, GET RID OF THEM ALL! Thou shalt all drive gray Volvos!