In Japan - At the Tokyo Motor Show - |
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Pengba Aruuba Eshingee * |
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The thumb rule, however, is if you are witnessing such an auto show in Asia then pay attention to the Asian car makers first so that at least you know what cars they may be planning for your home country. While the European and American car makers do have their Asian plans, it is the Asians who throw up the most interesting stuff. While the hybrid technology was the in-thing, that everybody loved to talk about considering the pressures of climate change on automakers, some of the new things the Japanese came up were either outrightly ridiculous or simply mind blowing, depending on who you are. For instance, Honda's concept Puyo. Beyond pollution and emissions, the Japanese car major thought it was time cars responded to human touch, literally. Imagine a car turning red when you touch its silicon body.
Yes, that's Puyo--clean, safe and fun-- that Honda would like to tom tom about. Driven by fuel cell technology, the vehicle is seen by its makers as an environmentally responsible, people-friendly concept with minimalist design that does least damage to pedestrians at the time of accidents. If Honda can, so does Nissan that seemed to be the case after seeing the latter's Pivo-2.
The uniquely designed vehicle, with revolving three-person cabin, which uses new technology 'by wire' (only Nissan engineers can explain) that uses electric signals for conventional mechanical linkages (shafts, hydraulic cylinders and other components) in the steering, braking and drivetrain systems. For the less enlightened, like yours truly, it was the revolving cabin that was the most interesting. You need not reverse the car if you want to go back, just revolve the cabin--front becomes back and vice-versa. Yet, on a more chauvinistic mode, for a man the real stuff is not in these softies. It is the likes of Ferraris, Harleys and Suzuki Biplane (the concept bike) that pumped up the adrenalin. Sadly, one could only click or touch it and not feel the real rev. Nevertheless something is better than nothing... Check out the full photo gallery here. Pengba Aruuba Eshingee, a pseudonym, is a regular contributor e-pao.net. You can email the writer at penbga(AT)rediffmail(DOT)com. This article was webcasted on 09th December 2007. |
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