In the year 2025, a scant 17 years from now, all cars will be electric. But according to Mitsubishi's entry into the LA Auto Show's latest design challenge, some will even tear up the Salt Flats, looking like bionic insects with the cruelest of intentions. Each wheel of the proposed MMR25 Rally Racer gets eight little wheels for omnidirectional movement, and there's no such thing as windshields in the future, replaced—naturally—by Star Trek tech. Here's the run down, plus the sickest rendering of a non-existent product I have ever seen.
Yes, the MMR25 will have nine motors in each wheel, one to spin the main structure and eight more to control smaller embedded wheels for traction while deftly maneuvering along the highway, maybe even driving sideways. Special "oblique aerodynamics" mean that the sideways driving won't be penalized by wind resistance, either.
There's no glass: It's too damn heavy, and you won't need it, what with visual information coming in via a crazy camera array that feeds a 360-degree panoramic screen that surrounds your "pod."
It's plenty power efficient, too, getting 1,000 miles per charge out of lightweight composite-nano-fiber-jiggied lithium-based batteries. (Now word on explodeyness, but presumably that's solved too.)
http://gizmodo.com/5055672/mitsubish...-for-year-2025
I think it looks very cool/sick