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Toyota’s new vehicle changes colour and suggests destinations according to your mood

Rona Moon Nov 8, 2013
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Toyota Motor plans to unveil a new vision of an astounding future reality at the Tokyo Motor Show (23 November to 1 December): the Toyota FV-2, a vehicle that can read its driver’s mood and changes colour accordingly. Imagine how this could work—you’re cruising down the road in a great mood, with your car a friendly, sunny yellow. Suddenly, you spot another vehicle in a messed-up shade of dark red. Uh-oh, road rage alert, better give that one a wide berth. You start to feel nervous, so your car turns a sickly green. Then you notice a hottie in the car next to you as you pull up at the lights, and your car blushes bright pink.

For people like me who distinguish cars mainly based on their colour—“uh, it’s a blue one”— this chameleon trick opens up a whole new world of confusion. How are you supposed to spot your friend’s car if it’s constantly changing colour? Oh right, he’s always in a bad mood, so it’s probably the black one. Anyway, I’m sure they’ve already thought of this!

Switching colours is only one of the stunning new features. Based on the expression of its driver, the FV-2 apparently proposes possible destinations. “Driver, you look tense. How about we go see your favourite masseuse? Or maybe drive-through Mickey D’s is what you need? Vroommm.”

▼ This driver is feeling a bit spaced out and nebulous.

And that’s not all… the FV-2 will even watch out for other vehicles (and humans) to ensure a safe distance is maintained.

▼ “Attention. Human, 3.26m. Terminate?”

The technology is not yet perfected, but the concept rocks. Takeo Moriai of Toyota’s product development team commented that these new vehicles will appeal to the “digital generation of consumers” who have been raised with smartphones and iPads.

If you happen to be a smartphone user, you can give the Toyota FV-2 a virtual test drive by downloading their app for Android or iPhone 4/5, which sends you on various missions to collect new “illuminations” for your car. And if it turns out that you’re a whiz at it, no matter where you are in the world you can win international fame by participating in the FV-2 Championship leading up to the Tokyo Motor Show.

▼ It’s just like riding a… jetski.

These young consumers won’t even need to go to the trouble of understanding their own feelings or deciding where to drive to—their car will do it for them! That’s all well and good, and the car looks beautiful, but I’m hanging out for the automatic parallel parking function. Again, I’m sure they’ve already thought of that!

▼ The Toyota FV-2, a horse of a different colour.

▼ Visions of Akira dance through my brain. We are now entering Neo-Tokyo…

These one-person vehicles embody the concept of “fun to drive”. Human and machine communicate in body and spirit to become true driving partners. Sound too good to be true? The future is now.

If you’re headed for the Tokyo Motor Show, it’s at Tokyo Big Sight from November 23 to December 1 (preview night 22 November). Look out for the special interactive exhibition for Toyota FV-2!

Source: ChinaNet
Images: Toyota Motor Corp