Slashdot Mirror
Interactive Games and Concept Cars (Video)
So far, Timothy Lord has showed you the Tesla Model S, a CODA electric car, both gas and electric Smarts, and the Chevy Segway. Now, in his final wrap-up video from the North American International Auto Show, he looks at some concept car models he doesn't think will ever make it to production, along with some interactive games some of the car makers used to draw attention to their products.
A few reasons:
A) Free press. Create a cool concept car and your company gets in the spotlight for a few days.
B) Technical feasibility. Concept cars are a good way to see if something is technically possible, without worrying about things like safety, regulations, etc. Lets face it, as cool as some concept cars look, the chances of surviving in an accident are much better with more conventional designs.
C) Market testing. Even non-production concept cars can judge what the market thinks of a particular car design. Spending a few hundred thousand on one or two cars that are hand made is a lot less risky then spending millions on the infrastructure and production of an unpopular production model.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
Perfectly on-topic, actually.
Car companies develop concept cars as part of their research and development strategies. While it is indeed very rare for a concept car to make it to a production line, they essentially serve as prototype platforms for a variety of technologies. If some engineer comes up with an improved anti-lock braking system (to use a random example) that differs wildly from tried-and-true status quo, they'll rig up a prototype and add it to a concept car where it can be tested in the physical world. If it works well (and passes all kinds of cost-benefit analysis), the company may decide to put it on a production model.
Concept cars are also very useful for trying out new styles and body designs that might be too far ahead of (or just too different from) the modern market's taste. You often see styling cues on new production models that were prototyped on concept cars a few years back.
Correction for C.
A concept car cost millions, engineers and custom fabrication work do not come cheap. Ramping up production for a new model is in the hundreds of millions to billions area.
What a crap name for a car.
Why would the pick a name already associated with another (lamer) transport product?
Just more evidence for my ongoing conspiracy theory that car companies actually don't want people to buy electric or hybrid vehicles. They have to be seen to be making an effort, but actually they prefer to just keep making/selling the same old internal combustion cars.
They also seemingly make all hybrids and electrics unnecessarily ugly, expensive and with reduced performance from what they should be easily able to achieve.
A concept car cost millions, engineers and custom fabrication work do not come cheap.
lots of concepts are hacked from existing models in a couple of weeks, while others are scratch-built designs, some of which are still banged out in a couple of weeks, at least the major parts. then there are others they can't get right after years :p
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"