Tag Archives: Automotive

This Electric Superbike Wears Its Battery Like a Honeycomb

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Bees settled on the hexagon ages ago, and nobody has topped it since. The shape packs the most storage into the least material, which is why it turns up in honeycomb aircraft panels and in the way round battery cells get stacked together. Brisbane’s Clandestine Design Group took the hint and built an entire electric superbike around it. The Cellcius C-01 is a hypersport concept whose battery is split into eight hexagonal cells that you can pull out and swap. Those cells line the bike’s flanks like honeycomb, and the result is one of the more striking EV silhouettes I’ve seen in a while.

Neil Davidson, who founded Clandestine in 2014 after 14 years as Creative Director at CMD, has loved motorcycles since he was a three-year-old farm kid on a dirt bike. That obsession shows. The C-01 won a 2026 Australian Good Design Award in the Concept Design category. It is still a concept, so there is no price tag or showroom date yet. The studio’s pitch is that electric bikes force a choice between heavy track machines and short-range commuters, and the Hex-Core battery system lets one bike be both. Load two cells for the commute or all eight for the track, and the same machine changes its personality to match.

Designer: Clandestine Design Group

Two Cells for the Commute, Eight for the Track

Each Hex-Core cell holds 3 kWh, so the bike carries anywhere from 6 kWh to 24 kWh depending on how many you load. By the studio’s numbers, the weight swings from 353 lb (160 kg) as a commuter to 485 lb (220 kg) as a track bike. Do the math and each cell works out to roughly 22 lb (10 kg), a weight you could carry up a flight of stairs. Two cells also fit Australia’s Learner Approved Motorcycle Scheme (LAMS), a rulebook that keeps new riders on tamer bikes, according to the studio. I can’t think of another superbike that can shrink for a learner permit and then bulk up for a lap day.

Kawasaki’s Ninja e-1 launched in the US at $7,599, weighs 309 lb (140 kg), and carries two removable 1.5 kWh packs that Kawasaki rates at 41 miles in Road mode. Zero’s 2026 SR/F, the usual benchmark for a serious electric streetfighter, packs 17.3 kWh into a body listed at about 500 lb (227 kg). Fully loaded, the C-01 claims 24 kWh at 485 lb, beating the Zero on both counts. That makes the Ninja and the SR/F look like the two ends of a spectrum the C-01 wants to cover with one chassis. Kawasaki’s two-pack setup proves removable batteries work for city riders, and the C-01 keeps adding packs until it hits superbike territory.

A Honeycomb You Can Carry Home

A wall-mounted smart dock charges several cells at once, so a fresh set is always waiting for a swap, a trick the studio calls “zero-minute” hot-swapping. Apartment dwellers get an ergonomic backpack that carries cells indoors for charging at a regular wall outlet. Riders who would rather skip the hauling can plug into a flush CCS port on top of the tank, which hooks into standard street-side fast chargers. Empty bays double as mounts for hex-shaped duffel bags, which keeps luggage inside the silhouette instead of hanging panniers off it. That setup goes straight at the studio’s stated target, urban apartment dwellers who have nowhere to plug in.

Pulled out of the bike, a cell turns into a portable power station with AC and USB outlets, according to the studio. That is the power tool battery logic every contractor already lives with, where one pack format runs a drill, a saw, and a work light. DeWalt and Milwaukee built huge product families on that idea, and the C-01 wants a superbike in the club. The studio also sees room for an aftermarket of Hex-Core accessories, from luggage to those power stations. A 5G app handles keyless RFID or PIN entry, over-the-air updates, and firmware tuning based on payload.

Shaft Drive, a Venturi Tail, and the Case for Swappable Superbikes

High-pressure ram intakes feed air in at speed while a low-pressure exhaust in the tail pulls it back out, a Venturi effect the studio says passively extracts motor heat without heavy fans. Power reaches the rear wheel through a fully enclosed carbon shaft drive, which the studio calls silent and maintenance-free. BMW has been putting shafts on motorcycles since the R32 in 1923, so the idea has real pedigree. Brembo brakes and fully adjustable Öhlins suspension round out a spec sheet that reads like a track-day wish list. My one wish is for the angular flyscreen to echo the hexagons a little more, since right now it reads like it came from a different bike.

Australia’s Good Design Awards date to 1958, and the Concept Design category, new since 2025, judges early-stage ideas on form, function, feasibility, and safety. A win there rewards the thinking, and the thinking here is easy to admire. My favorite part is that the battery, usually the thing EV designers hide under a tank cover, becomes the main visual feature. Electric bikes have spent years arguing over range versus weight, and the C-01 answers by letting the rider settle it each morning. Bees figured out the hexagon without a design degree, and a Brisbane studio just reminded the motorcycle world how well it stacks.

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This pixel-covered MINI concept makes the Hyundai Ioniq 5 look subtle

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Hyundai got everybody talking about pixels in 2019, when the 45 EV Concept showed up in Frankfurt with square-cut lights, and the Ioniq 5 carried the idea to showrooms in 2021. Hyundai even named the look Parametric Pixel and spread it across the headlights, taillights, and wheels. It was a smart move, and it gave the Ioniq 5 a face you could pick out of a parking lot from across the street. Still, Hyundai used pixels like a seasoning, a sprinkle here and a dash there. Somebody was bound to dump the whole shaker.

That somebody is Uygar, a Turkey-based designer who calls himself a professional daydreamer, and the shaker is a MINI. The headlights keep MINI’s round shape but fill the rings with squares, a dot-matrix grille owns the nose, and each wheel is a glowing mosaic disc. The Union Jack taillights are rebuilt out of red pixels, a nod to the flag lamps from MINI’s 2018 facelift. It’s a long-roof five-door with stubby overhangs, a dark roof, and satin champagne-silver paint, so the pixels do the talking. I tried counting the squares on one wheel and gave up when my coffee went cold.

Designer: Uygar (uygarspots)

Round headlights, square pixels, and a grille that glows

MINI’s round headlight is the closest thing the brand has to a signature, so Uygar leaves the circle alone and changes what it is made of. Each ring becomes a loop of little squares wrapped around a dark projector lens, like a digital eye with a very serious pupil. Below it, the closed grille is a dot-matrix field that glows brightest at the center and fades toward the edges. A thin vertical light bar drops from the bumper like a tiny exclamation mark. From a block away the face looks friendly, and up close you can count the grid.

Hyundai keeps its pixels inside the lamps, so the Ioniq 5 still reads as a car with a few digital accents. Here the whole nose becomes one display, so the face reads as a single graphic. That suits a brand whose cars have worn a cheeky expression since Alec Issigonis’s original Mini arrived in 1959. The production Cooper EV already lets owners pick from three light signatures, so a face that changes mood is hardly a leap. This one has far more dots to play with, and I suspect it would be a menace at red lights.

The wheels and taillights carry the pixel jewelry

The wheels are where the idea gets silly in the best way. Each one is a full disc covered in amber squares, arranged in a swirl that thins out toward the rim and bunches up around the MINI wings at the hub. Some squares glow bright while others sit nearly dark, so the whole disc looks caught mid-sparkle. Hyundai’s pixel wheels ask you to read the pattern in the metal, and these ask you to read it in light. Park one at night and you have a disco ball on each corner, minus the awkward dance lessons.

The rear is the cleanest trick in the set. A black glass band spans the tailgate and holds two Union Jack lamps built from red dots, with the MINI wings sitting between them. MINI introduced flag-style taillights in 2018, using the turn signals for the horizontal bars and the brake lights for the vertical ones. Then the 2022 Aceman concept drew a Union Jack across its grille in matrix LEDs. This render finishes the thought by building the flag from pixels, which is where a flag made of light was always headed.

MINI already flirted with pixels, and this is the follow-through

MINI did not wander into this blind. The Aceman concept appeared in July 2022 and made its first public showing at Gamescom in Cologne, which tells you exactly who the brand was flirting with. Its matrix LED headlights and grille drew Lite-Brite comparisons, a nod to the glowing peg toy Hasbro launched in 1967, and the right headlamp could even wink. The Cooper EV that followed took a calmer path, with round lamps, three light signatures, and a 9.4 inch (240mm) round OLED screen inside. The pixel face was the Aceman’s loudest idea, and production turned the volume down.

Uygar’s concept feels like the alternate timeline where nobody in the design review said “maybe a little less.” Hyundai sprinkled, MINI nibbled, and this render tips the whole shaker over the car. If I owned a MINI and somebody offered me these wheels, I would ask where to sign, then ask where the off switch is. The little British hatch has always been the brand most willing to act like a toy, and a toy with a glowing face is hard to argue with. Dump the whole shaker, I say, and let the pixels fall where they may.

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Porsche Mission S ditches the center screen for a driver-focused supercar cockpit

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Porsche has unveiled the Mission S, a vision model that previews its evolving design language and introduces plans for a new mid-engine super sports car positioned above the 911. The German automaker describes the performance machine as the foundation for a permanent addition to its lineup, combining motorsport influences with a more focused approach to driving.

Revealed in Queens, New York, the Mission S also draws attention to Porsche’s history. The location recalls the 1953 appearance of the 550 Spyder on the same pier, a car that helped establish the company’s reputation in the United States. The new concept carries that legacy forward through proportions and details inspired by several of the marque’s historic sports cars.

Designer: Porsche

Its exterior centres on a low nose, rounded headlights and pronounced front fenders that recall the 911. The flat front end takes inspiration from the 911 GT1, while the roofline extending beneath the rear wing references the 959. At the back, a design treatment derived from the GT1 creates a layered, car-within-a-car effect. These references are integrated into a contemporary form rather than reproduced as retro styling.

A continuous line connects the front and rear light signatures, visually tying the body together. Above it, the sculpted surfaces emphasise the car’s muscular proportions; below, exposed technical elements reinforce its functional character. The centrally positioned engine makes the familiar Porsche roofline possible, while a cooling arrangement inspired by the 917’s radiator fan and an integrated active rear wing bring engineering details into the visual design. The wheels reinterpret the distinctive dial-like pattern of the 928, with an emphasis on lightweight construction.

On the inside, Porsche takes a less screen-dependent approach to the driving experience. The cabin draws on the 550 Spyder and 356, using flowing lines across the dashboard and doors to create a low, enclosed cockpit. Traditional switches and physical controls sit alongside digital displays, with the layout arranged around the driver. White, grey and red accents reference the brand’s racing colours.

The instrument cluster is a central feature. Five round instruments sit behind the steering wheel, with an analogue rev counter at the centre and a digital display behind it. Their arrangement can change with the selected driving mode, adapting the presentation to the driver’s needs. A redesigned Sport Chrono element combines analogue styling with digital functions, while push-pull controls provide direct access to selected vehicle settings.

Porsche has also left out a permanently installed central touchscreen and passenger display. Instead, a retractable smartphone holder compatible with MagSafe allows a personal device to serve as a navigation or information screen when needed. The My Porsche app provides access to vehicle functions and offers historically inspired designs for the digital instrument displays.

For now, Mission S remains a vision model, not a production car with confirmed performance figures or a launch date. Porsche has, however, announced development of a new mid-engine super sports car platform. Its eventual production models will show how much of this concept’s design and driver-focused philosophy makes it to the road.

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The Lamborghini Miura Fountain Pen has a pop-up headlight built right into the cap

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Pop-up headlights were the original fidget toy, and anyone who grew up with a Miata in the family knows it. You’d flick them up and down in the driveway for no reason at all, purely because it felt like the car was blinking at you. Montegrappa clearly gets the appeal. Its new Automobili Lamborghini Miura pen, made to celebrate the Miura’s 60th anniversary, puts a working miniature headlight on the end of the cap. Press a button and the little rock crystal lamp tilts up out of its pocket, mimicking the car’s famous lights. I give it about four seconds before you stop writing and start obsessing and fidgeting over the mini headlight detail.

The headlight gets top billing, but Montegrappa threaded the Miura through the whole pen. The cap’s rounded nose reads like the car’s front fender, with the lamp sunk into a sloped recess the way it sits on the real thing. A black ribbed clip echoes the Miura’s slats, the stacked end cap recalls its louvered engine cover, and the barrel comes in Giallo Fly, Verde Miura, or Black. Montegrappa, Italy’s oldest pen maker, is building 60 of each color as both a fountain pen and a rollerball, for 360 pieces total. The fountain pen costs €8,250 (roughly $9,280), which is a lot for a pen and a bargain for a Miura.

Designer: Montegrappa x Automobili Lamborghini

How the rock crystal headlight pops up on the cap

Rock crystal is natural clear quartz, rating about 7 on the Mohs hardness scale, which is why it was cut into watch crystals and lenses centuries before synthetic sapphire showed up. Montegrappa sets a domed piece of it on an engraved base that recreates the texture of the Miura’s original lamp, so you see a faceted reflector pattern through the stone. A tactile push-button mechanism tilts the lamp up out of its dark-rimmed housing, the same way the car’s headlights rise from the fender. With the cap on, the lamp sits at the very top of the pen like a finial. It won’t light up your notebook, sadly, though at this price I’d have happily accepted a tiny LED.

Gandini gave the Miura’s headlamps metal eyelids framed by black slatted “eyelashes,” and that face became the car’s signature when it debuted at the 1966 Geneva Motor Show. The SV dropped the eyelashes in the early ’70s, and Miura fans have been arguing about that call ever since. Montegrappa’s cap may have smuggled them back in. To my eye, the ribbed black clip sitting right behind the lamp plays the same visual role the eyelashes did on the fender. The press shots seal the deal by parking the cap beside a yellow Miura with its lashes intact, and the resemblance is uncanny.

An 18K ruthenium nib, an ebonite feed, and serious desk heft

Uncap the fountain pen and you get an 18K gold nib with ruthenium plating, a platinum-group metal that gives it a dark gunmetal tone matching the black clip and end cap. The Lamborghini shield is engraved right on the nib face. Underneath sits an ebonite feed, the vulcanized hard rubber that fountain pen nerds love for its smooth, consistent ink flow. Nib options run from Extra Fine to Broad, plus a 1.1mm Stub if you like your handwriting with a little calligraphic swagger. Filling is a straightforward cartridge or converter setup, with two cartridges and a converter included in the box.

The pen measures 6.34 inches (161mm) long and 0.79 inches (20mm) across, and the fountain pen weighs 3.07 ounces (87 grams). That’s a little lighter than two AirPods Pro cases, which puts it firmly in desk-carry territory. The rollerball is a touch heavier at 3.25 ounces (92 grams) and keeps the same body, cap, and headlight, swapping the nib for a black conical tip. Both arrive in a lacquered wood and genuine leather case inspired by the Miura’s seats and interior. Considering how cramped the real car’s cabin is, this might be the roomiest Miura interior ever made.

From the 60° start switch to the Miura’s pop-up headlight

Montegrappa and Lamborghini first teamed up in 2023 for the carmaker’s own 60th anniversary, producing the Automobili Lamborghini 60° collection. Those pens had a hexagonal billet aluminum body and a red alloy flip switch on the base, modeled on the guard over Lamborghini’s start button. They took 24 months to develop and sold in the US for $6,495 as a fountain pen and $5,495 as a rollerball. The Miura edition goes softer and rounder, trading hexagonal edges for glossy curves that suit a 1960s car. Line the two up and a pattern emerges, with Montegrappa taking a car’s most theatrical physical gesture and turning it into the pen’s party trick.

Lamborghini has spent years mining the Miura, from the Aventador Ultimae Roadster that saluted the one-off 1968 Miura Roadster to this year’s 99-unit Revuelto Miura 60° Homage. Montegrappa’s pen is the most attainable entry in that club, and easily the most playful. My one wish is a variant with a proper ring of tiny slatted eyelashes around the lamp, for the P400 purists who want the full face. Pre-orders are open on Montegrappa’s site now, with deliveries starting in mid-November, and official US pricing should land somewhere near that euro conversion. Just keep the fidgeting to a minimum during your next board meeting.

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Tesla’s New Roadster Can Fly. Its CEO’s Reputation Cannot.

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Nine years. It took Elon nine years to remember he was supposed to ship a Roadster. Announced in 2017, the second-generation car came with bold promises. Promises Elon made and conveniently forgot, like the crewed Mars mission he targeted for 2024, or the coast-to-coast self-driving demo he promised by the end of 2017. He’s a genius at moving the goalpost, and he has the attention span of a toddler. In those nine years, he moved Tesla HQ to Texas, launched a Roadster into outer space, bought Twitter, bankrolled a presidential campaign to the tune of $200 million, fronted DOGE, and folded xAI into SpaceX, whose IPO made him the world’s first trillionaire. Somehow, delivering the second Roadster never made the list.

On Thursday, he remembered the Roadster still had reservations sitting for nearly a decade. So he did what he always does: razzle-dazzle, fanfare, and a stunt big enough to bury nine years of broken timelines. The car Tesla showed on October 15 differs from the 2017 pitch, though not in ways worth cheering. Range drops from 620 miles to over 300, and seats drop from four to two at most. The 0-60 is better, with Tesla claiming under 1.6 seconds on the base car, under 0.9 on Thrust, and under 0.59 on Rocket, but the last two trims aren’t approved for road use. Impressive on paper, but just like the 2017 Roadster, all this is only on paper.

The flying trim has no reserve button and no road approval

Tesla is selling the Roadster in three trims, and the one that flies is the one you can’t reserve. The Rocket trim seats one, runs ten cold-gas thrusters fed by 600 liters (roughly 158 gallons) of compressed air, and carries an invite only label where the reserve button should be. The $250,000 Thrust trim adds rear thrusters for sub-one-second launches (sort of like afterburners on a jet), meanwhile the $50,000 Performance trim reservation gets no thrusters. Tesla says none of the thruster packs are approved for road use, and no human was driving during the Waco demo. There’s still no price, battery size, or powertrain info for any trim. My bet is that Rocket ends up a mod a handful of invitees get 5-6 years after the base car.

Design school drills one question into you early: who is this for? A feature Tesla itself says isn’t approved for road use, offered to people who can’t even reserve it, answers with a shrug. Tesla credits the SR-71 and F-35, though the wedge owes a visible debt to the Lotus Esprit from The Spy Who Loved Me, which Musk owns and put on display. Every usable void in the car is packed with carbon fiber overwrapped pressure vessels, the same type behind multiple SpaceX rocket explosions. Musk has said safety is not the main goal, which at least explains the packaging. It’s like ordering a sofa and receiving a trampoline show: great theater, and still no price.

Nine years of slipped dates and a spec sheet that shrank

Tesla revealed this Roadster as a surprise at the end of the 2017 Semi event and promised deliveries within a few years. Buyers put down $50,000 deposits, and some paid $250,000 for one of 1,000 Founders Series cars. Musk then delayed the car in 2020, 2021, 2023, and 2024, while Tesla fought through Model 3 production hell and moved on to the Model Y and Cybertruck. Last year he promised a reveal by the end of 2025, then pushed it to April 1, 2026, saying an April Fools’ event would give him some deniability. Planning your own launch around deniability is a bold strategy. Severe weather bumped the October 1 date, and the real show finally happened October 15.

The 2017 pitch listed 620 miles of range, a top speed above 250 mph, four seats, and a $200,000 base price. Today’s version quotes over 300 miles of range (Tesla’s figure, with no test cycle named), over 230 mph, two seats at most, and no price at all. The deposit is still $50,000, so anyone holding a 2017 reservation has been lending Tesla that money interest free since before the Model Y existed. In fairness, the base car now beats the 1.9-second 0-60 promised in 2017, and the stunt car clearly works. Marques Brownlee, one of the customers vocal about the delays, summed up the mood by asking whether the whole thing was a prank.

Elon’s graveyard of dead promises

In 2016, Tesla told buyers every car it built had the hardware for full self-driving, and it later sold the package for up to $15,000. In April 2019, Musk promised over a million robotaxis on the road by 2020. He has since admitted that the HW3 computer in millions of those cars can’t deliver unsupervised driving. A California judge ruled the name itself misleading. The DMV gave Tesla 60 days to fix its marketing or face a 30-day sales suspension. Tesla now sells it as Full Self-Driving (Supervised), which is a lot of parentheses for a promise that began without any.

Musk targeted a crewed Mars mission for 2024, then floated an uncrewed 50-50 shot at late 2026, and in February SpaceX shifted its focus to the Moon. He said Mars would now take 20 years or more. On Optimus, he promised 1,000 or more robots working at Tesla in 2025, then said in January 2026 they were still R&D units doing no useful work. Robotaxis are the bright spot, since they now run without safety drivers in a few cities. That’s still a long way from the half of the country he promised. Each broken promise gets swapped for a bigger one, which is a handy way to keep the old ones from getting audited.

Why a flying car won’t change Elon’s true legacy

Back in December 2024 before DOGE officially existed, Musk and Trump attacked a bipartisan spending deal as bloated, and Republican leaders dropped it, resulting in the gutting of funding for pediatric cancer research. The casualties included an extension for the NIH’s Gabriella Miller Kids First program, named for a 10-year-old who died of a brain tumor. Nancy Goodman, who lost her own child to cancer at 10, asked how anyone cuts cancer research in the name of efficiency. The Senate passed a pared-back version two days later, but the Give Kids a Chance Act took until February 2026 to become law. Once DOGE got going, NIH announced a 15% overhead cap that Fred Hutch said would erase about $125 million a year for its cancer center.

USDA canceled about $660 million for Local Food for Schools and $420 million for a companion food bank program, just as the administration and DOGE said they were slashing waste. One school district lost $100,000 it had planned to spend on local beef and produce for student meals. The Waco crowd cheered a car leaping over a Cybertruck, and I sat there in admiration too. A good design improves someone’s life, and a stunt car with no price, no road approval, and a 2028 date hasn’t improved anyone’s yet. The Roadster can fly. Its CEO’s reputation stays on the ground, parked next to the cancer bill and the school food money.

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Tesla’s new roadster employs SpaceX thrusters to perform midair flips, reach 60 MPH in 0.81 seconds

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Tesla’s second-generation Roadster is taking the idea of a performance car in an unexpected direction. At a demonstration held at a SpaceX test facility in McGregor, Texas, on October 15, the electric coupe was shown performing midair rotations, clearing other cars, and driving upside down on a specially designed ramp. The stunts rely on technology developed with SpaceX, giving the Roadster capabilities that go well beyond those of a conventional electric sports car.

The airborne manoeuvres are made possible by compressed-air thrusters mounted around the vehicle. Instead of using wings or rotors, the system releases pressurised gas through strategically positioned nozzles to generate short bursts of thrust. These help lift the car, control its orientation in the air, and assist with forward acceleration. Tesla has described the system as capable of producing 80 kilonewtons of thrust, although the company has yet to publish a complete set of production specifications.

Designer: Tesla

The demonstration included a corkscrew-like rotation before the Roadster returned to the ground. While the footage gives an idea of what the system can do, it does not establish that the car can sustain flight. The current concept is closer to a road-going vehicle with limited airborne capability than a flying car in the usual sense. The compressed-air tanks also need to be replenished, adding another practical consideration to the system.

Another unusual feature is the car’s ability to travel upside down along a purpose-built ramp. An active suction system beneath the chassis pulls the vehicle towards the surface, helping it maintain contact where conventional aerodynamic downforce would be insufficient. Elon Musk has claimed that the system can deliver more than 2 Gs of cornering grip. Its effectiveness on ordinary roads, however, remains unproven.

The Roadster’s exterior still follows the proportions of a low-slung sports coupe, with angular bodywork, upward-opening doors, and a deployable rear spoiler. The design has to accommodate more than batteries and electric motors, though. Compressed-air tanks, thrusters, and the associated control systems introduce packaging challenges, while the suction hardware adds another layer of mechanical complexity.

Tesla has also claimed a 0–60 mph time of 0.81 seconds when using the thruster-assisted setup. That figure has not been independently verified as a production-car performance result. The company has outlined Performance, Thrust, and Rocket configurations, with the most extreme version expected to include additional thrusters for vertical movement. Final specifications, pricing, and the precise capabilities of each version remain unconfirmed.

There are practical questions that the demonstration cannot answer. Powerful gas discharges, the demands of controlling the car in midair, and the consequences of a failed manoeuvre would all require careful engineering and testing. Any airborne function would also face regulatory hurdles before it could be used outside a controlled facility.

Tesla is targeting production in 2028, but the Roadster’s final form is still uncertain. The thruster system is an intriguing engineering experiment, though fitting it into a usable, road-legal car will be a different challenge from demonstrating what it can do on a closed test course.

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Toyota’s ‘Wheel-less’ Wheelchair wins the 2026 Red Dot Concept Luminary Award

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Somewhere around age eight, I decided the coolest vehicles in the universe all had legs. The AT-ATs in The Empire Strikes Back, the mechs in every anime I wasn’t supposed to be watching, all of them walked where cars couldn’t. Toyota apparently had the same childhood, because its four-legged ‘walk me’ chair just won the 2026 Red Dot: Luminary, the highest honor at the Red Dot Award: Design Concept. The difference is that Toyota pointed its walking machine at something useful, helping people with limited mobility get up stairs and over curbs. Meanwhile, the Empire is still building walkers purely for invading ice planets.

Designed by Misako Kawata under team lead Takashi Nishimura, walk me trades the wheelchair’s wheels for four robotic legs that step up stairs, shuffle sideways in tight spaces, and lift the seat to eye level with standing pedestrians. Toyota skipped the menacing chrome and went soft instead, wrapping the joints in 3D-knitted fabric and a felt-like body with bright chartreuse legs. The result looks like a friendly piece of furniture that happens to climb things. It debuted at last year’s Japan Mobility Show as a concept, and Toyota has announced no price or release date. Mobility for All is the company’s stated mission here, and for once the slogan comes with legs.

Designer: Toyota Motor Corporation

Four Legs are far superior than Four Wheels

Stairs create psychological barriers long before they create physical ones, and Toyota’s own design brief says as much. A wheel looks at a staircase and gives up, so the rider plans the whole day around avoiding them. Walk me swaps the wheels for four robotic legs, which lets one machine link indoor floors, outdoor paths, cars, and public transit. It climbs steps, slides sideways through tight spaces, and generally refuses to treat architecture as a personal insult. Anyone who has ever hunted for the one accessible entrance around the back of a building will understand the appeal.

Four legs can crouch for boarding and stand tall to put the rider at eye level with pedestrians, which fixes a problem wheelchairs have carried forever. Anyone who has spent a whole conversation craning upward at a taller friend knows the strain. Wheelchair users deal with that angle daily, and a chair that rises to meet the conversation changes the dynamic. Toyota says the same leg movement also makes getting on and off the chair easier. It’s a small social fix tucked inside a big mechanical one, and I’d argue it’s the most human detail in the whole design.

A polite Japanese gesture, wrapped in 3D-knitted fabric

Toyota built the posture around omotenashi, the Japanese spirit of hospitality, so the chair’s stance resembles a polite bow that welcomes its rider. A 3D-knitted fabric covers the mechanical joints, while the warm, felt-like body gives it a friendly, furniture-like silhouette. In the images, the gray hip housing and seat shell read like a premium lounge chair, and the ribbed chartreuse legs add a pop of color that says friendly rather than clinical. I never expected to call a robot cozy, but here we are. Nobody has ever been intimidated by a sweater, and that is very clearly the strategy.

Toyota started as a loom maker under Sakichi Toyoda, so wrapping a robot in knitted fabric reads as a family tradition. Its own Japan Mobility Show booth traced the company’s robotics roots back to the Toyoda Automatic Loom Type G. A century on, textile know-how and robotics meet in a chartreuse-legged chair that bows at strangers. Beneath the fabric sits a topologically optimized internal frame that keeps the structure strong and light while staying completely hidden. Toyota wants you to see an armchair with ambition, and the skeleton is nobody’s business but the robot’s.

Ten months, AI gait control, and a very promising future

Toyota took walk me from idea to working prototype in just 10 months, which is wild for a machine that has to balance a human being on four legs. AI gait control and low-waste metal additive manufacturing made that pace possible, compressing years of R&D into weeks, according to Toyota. The company calls the chair its North Star for human-centered technology. That technology is meant to deliver dignity, hope, and independence alongside plain old movement. Red Dot’s concept award honors prototypes and ideas rather than shipping products, so the Luminary measures vision more than store-shelf readiness.

Hyundai’s Elevate walking car put wheels at the end of long robotic legs, and Kawasaki’s CORLEO robot horse offers a rideable quadruped for off-road thrills. Those machines chase rescue missions and rugged trails. Walk me points similar legwork at a living room staircase, which is arguably the more relatable terrain. Among this year’s Red Dot: Best of the Best winners, it’s the one the jury crowned with the top prize. It remains a concept with no price, release date, or production plans, but a robot that bows, climbs, and wears a knitted sweater has me convinced that the future of mobility might finally have good manners.

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Extra wide street-legal Ford hatchback takes on-lookers by surprise

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The world’s narrowest Fiat Panda caught me off guard the first time I saw it. I had to double-check if this was a vision anomaly, but it was not, and out of pure instinct had to cover it. Now we are going polar opposites with the widest street-legal car, which is the work of Tyler Fever (from the YouTube channel Prop Department), who loves his unique automotive DIY projects. After surprising everyone with the world’s thinnest car, for this one he collaborated with Bamboo Lab to bring the project to life.

This DIY project kicks off with the acquisition of three old Ford Festiva sub-compact hatchbacks for $200 each. After stripping one of the cars from the dead center with a portable fiber laser, the next step is taking both halves apart. Then the idea is to stretch the vehicle to the width of a truck, but keeping it within street-legal limits. After a bit of figuring out, Tyler went with a 10 feet width to have the best balance of structural integrity and ability to drive it on roads with some special permits.

Designer: Prop Department

To fill in the space between the two halves, he added structural bars to the floor and the roof. On top go the sheet metals – 10 gauge on the floor and 18 gauge on the roof. This makes the structure form into a single solid structure welded together while preserving the original body panels on the sides. One of the challenges was to expand the suspension and drivetrain to cope with the new form factor. For the front-wheel drive side, the CV axle is stretched five feet with precise welding and controlled cooling. He decided to add steering shafts from the other donor Festivas, so that both front seaters can steer the vehicle. Freakin awesome, don’t you think?

Next came the crafting of the car’s parts like the front grille and the stretched-up dashboard parts using the Bambu Lab H2C 3D printer. Now that the car has plenty of space inside, the modifications came in the shape of a big center console with 14 cup holders. Under the hood, there is enough space to put the engine to one side, an air conditioner with a generator (now that’s wild), and all the other mechanical components to make the machine go. The last step involved painting the sunshine yellow paint and installing the plastic windows.

The front angle of this stretched-out Ford is crazy, and so are the ignition buttons on the inside. Driving it out of the garage for the first time makes Tyler go bonkers as he tests the brakes and the limits of the wide body, grazing it against the road limits. The last surprise came in the form of an officially licensed number plate that’s equally wide. The fun part begins when the car rolls on the highway and then on dirt roads for more than two hours of driving. To check the car’s boot space, he loads it with wooden sleepers and whatnot!

 

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Fiat Multiplay Concept is a family car that turns into a pickup when more space is needed

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Fiat’s Multiplay concept explores a practical alternative to owning separate vehicles for family travel and outdoor activities. Unveiled ahead of the 2026 Paris Motor Show, the 4.45-meter-long concept combines the space of a multi-purpose vehicle (MPV), the styling of an SUV, and the cargo-carrying ability of a pickup. Its USP is a movable rear body section that changes the vehicle’s layout depending on what the day demands.

Called C-Pillar Metamorfosi, the transformation system allows the Multiplay to switch from a six-seat family configuration with an additional flexible seating module to a four-seat pickup with an open cargo bed. The rear section slides along dedicated guides, creating space for bicycles, sports equipment, and bulky items without eliminating the front and rear passenger seating. A rotating rear spoiler also doubles as an integrated bicycle rack capable of carrying two bikes.

Designer: Fiat

Inside, Fiat has designed the cabin around the changing needs of families. The additional unit, called the Petsenger seat, can accommodate a child seat, provide a dedicated place for a pet, or function as a small table or storage compartment. Part of its cushion can be detached and used as a leash, while a folding bowl is stored in a door compartment. Pockets, elastic straps, and other storage solutions help keep everyday essentials organized.

The concept also rethinks the conventional third row, which often offers limited comfort and space. Fiat says the Multiplay’s rear compartment can accommodate two children or an adult when necessary, while keeping younger passengers within view and reach of their parents. This arrangement wants to make the cabin more useful for family trips without requiring a larger vehicle.

Another multifunctional feature is the Sunseat. When the car is parked, the front passenger seat can turn toward the rear and use the dashboard as a backrest, creating a chaise longue beneath the panoramic roof. Large windows and generous glass surfaces bring more natural light into the cabin, reinforcing its connection to outdoor activities and leisure.

The exterior and interior follow a playful design theme inspired by watermelon. The green bodywork represents the rind, while red and pink cabin accents reference the fruit’s flesh. Inside, Fiat explores monomaterial textiles produced through a stitch-free 3D knitting process, which is intended to reduce material waste. Waterproof finishes in the children’s and pet areas address the practical demands of everyday family use.

Technology is integrated into the cabin without dominating its design. A hidden dashboard display disappears when the vehicle is switched off, leaving a cleaner surface. The dashboard’s horizontal form draws inspiration from the Mediterranean horizon, while its colors connect the exterior design with the interior.

The Multiplay continues Fiat’s longstanding interest in maximizing interior space within compact dimensions, recalling the six-seat Fiat 600 Multipla of 1956 and the original Multipla introduced in 1998. The Italian car maker describes the concept as a laboratory for future ideas, not a preview of a specific production vehicle. They’ve not announced a powertrain, performance figures, pricing, or a production timeline. So, we’ll keep our lens zoomed in on more details as they arrive.

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Wild Land PickupMate Trunk turns your pickup into two-story camping space at the push of a button

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If you’re like me, constantly looking for a new way to carry, camp, and explore with the pickup, chances are you’ve heard about Wild Land. Yes, the same manufacturer that brought the lightest, most spacious rooftop tent for an off-roader to Kickstarter. Now the manufacturer is playing it different, not just releasing a truck cap, but a versatile alternative that opens up a multi-story living space on the truck bed, which installs using a remote control or onboard control.

The Wild Land PickupMate Trunk, as the new camping solution from Wild Land is called, is designed for pickup owners who want more versatility without complicated modification. The Trunk thus turns the truck bed into a customizable space, ensuring that the original flexibility, usability, and off-road clearance remain unhindered.

Designer: Wild Land

Created with convenience in mind, the camping solution mounts onto the truck bed without drilling. Its lightweight folding structure installs with strong multi-point support. It can triple as a truck cap, rooftop tent, and a storage box, a combination that you will not get in any other alternative to the Trunk. Its dual-level layout is the striking aspect, which opens up the space from a box shape into a two-story living space, ideal for 2-3 people.

What makes the PickupMate Trunk really interesting is its electro-actuated scissor-lift frame that mounts onto the upper perimeter of the pickup bed. Instead of manually setting up an entire camp, you can expand or fold the structure in mere seconds at the push of a button. It supports remote and app control, making it easy to switch between the compact storage configuration and expanded living space whenever you want. Its folding structure also allows it to return to a compact form when the extra living space is not needed.

When it is deployed, the dual-level layout offers up to 9 feet of interior height, creating a spacious environment you would typically expect from a pickup bed setup. The first level provides a compact living area, while the second level expands into a larger space, with interior dimensions reaching 118 inches in length. Wild Land has also paid attention to the details that make a camping space more comfortable for camping, overlanding, hunting, and even fishing.

It has been provided with panoramic windows that allow natural light and ventilation, opening up the living area to the surroundings. Integrated lighting, power, and smart controls offer convenience, while a built-in 4.0 surround sound system means your entertainment is taken care of inside the Trunk.

The PickupMate Trunk comes in two versions: the smaller variant weighs 459 lbs, while the large version comes in at 485 lbs. When folded, the small model measures 67 x 59 x 24 inches, and the large version measures 73 x 59 x 24 inches, the company notes. The compact closed dimensions make travel more convenient and easy. The automatic setup of the camping solution, irrespective of the size, is powered by an 86.4Wh battery, which supports approximately six setup cycles. This allows users to operate the lifting and folding system without having to manually handle the change its configuration.

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