Infiniti is presenting an imaginative future race car design as part of the upcoming LA Auto Show’s Design Challenge. Though purely a thought exercise, it’s a peek into what automakers are conjuring behind the closed walls of their design studios.
Each year the LA Auto Show, home show to America’s auto design nexus, invites automakers and their design studios to come up with futuristic takes on a common theme. For 2014, that theme is “Sensing the Future,” which focuses on human-machine connection because apparently even autonomous cars are not yet communicating with us on a telepathic level.
Infiniti is the first to reveal their submission, called the Synaptiq. It’s not so much a car as a pod that fits into a range of vehicles. The premise is a new motorsports triathalon called ARC, or Air, Rally and Circuit, taking place in 2029. Races are broken down into three parts: a Formula One-esque road course stretching between Los Angeles and Las Vegas, an off-road rally stage to the Grand Canyon, and an airborne leg guided by virtual pylons back to LA.
At each section, the driver’s Synaptiq fuselage is removed (or ejected) from each vehicle for transfer. Wouldn’t it be easier for the driver to hop from vehicle to vehicle? No, because the way you control the car is a “spinal lock” connection port that takes human-machine interface to the next level. The Synaptic S.U.I.T. (Symbiotic User Interface Technology) actually has a slot on the back. You can imagine the rest.
Other competitors in the Design Challenge include Honda, Acura, Mercedes, Nissan, Subaru, Volkswagen, Toyota’s Calty studio, Peterbilt, and Chinese newcomer automaker Qoros. The winner will be announced during the LA Auto Show next week.
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