LA Auto Show: nature-inspired futuristic concept vehicles

This year’s LA auto show design challenge winner created the concept of a sustainable urban ecosystem inspired by the relationship between ants and trumpet trees. Autonomous Mobiliant vehicles are a combination of public transport and personal taxis, which run on a network of tracks above paved city roads.
Photograph: SAIC Motors, China

In the Mobiliant ecosystem, vehicles mimic the role of ants and Ecobuildings mimic the role of trumpet trees. Mobiliants convert green house gas emissions into fertilisers that are used to grow plants on Ecobuildings, which are then fermented into biofuels to fuel Mobiliants. In this design, the more Mobiliants there are, the more the ecosystem benefits. Photograph: SAIC Motors, China

Qoros submitted the idea of a silkworm-inspired system to meet the projected needs of a congested Shanghai in 2025, when the city’s population is expected to soar to 30 million people driving 8m vehicles. These vehicles would be constructed by silkworm-like robots. Photograph: Qoros Auto, China

To address issues of pollution, congestion, safety and high cost of ownership, Qoros designers created small autonomous two-seater vehicles that connect to the cloud (or Qloud). The vehicles operate together and charge their batteries in symbiotic ways (see this video for more information). Photograph: Qoros Auto, China

The Toyota e-grus is an electric dual-purpose, hyper-commuter vehicle based on the movement of cranes. Los Angeles has some 233,000 hyper-commuters, who travel more than 200 miles to work, according to the design team. To ease commutes, the e-grus would expand, allowing higher speeds for distance driving similar to the way a crane lengthens in flight. Photograph: CALTY Design Research, Toyota Design Network

The e-grus would shrink for urban driving and parking via an active metal skin hardened by electrical currents. Photograph: CALTY Design Research, Toyota Design Network

The BMW designers proposed an alternative to using the network of freeways covering Los Angeles: commuter vehicles that traverse the LA River like schools of fish. Just one problem: in a city that gets less than 15 inches of rain per year and faces water scarcity problems, the water levels would be far too low to support such vehicles. Photograph: BMW Group Designworks

Based on lightweight bamboo and the hollow legs of grasshoppers, the LaBrea would have a hollow reed construction that makes it recyclable and a dynamic chassis that would enable the vehicle to expand, contract and bounce back. The idea of vehicles made of recyclable materials that can change size based on urban needs, such as commuting and parking, was a common theme in the design contest. Photograph: Changfeng Motor Corporation, China

Inspired by the jumping motion of kangaroos, Subaru designed a single-passenger wearable mobile unit called the Suba-Roo. With each spring-loaded hopping motion, the unit would store kinetic energy as elastic energy and propel itself forward without needing external fuel. Excess kinetic energy would be converted into electricity and stored to power the unit. Photograph: Subaru Global Design Team, Japan

Will drivers trade in their cars for all terrain Suba-Roos and hop off into the sunset? That remains to be seen. Photograph: Subaru Global Design Team, Japan