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Toyota unveils finalists in $4 million quest to reinvent wheelchairs
Toyota's ongoing bid to modernize wheelchairs has borne some fruit. The automaker has unveiled the five finalists for its $4 million Mobility Unlimited Challenge after three years of competition, and all of them promise to rethink how people with mobility issues get around -- in some cases, without using a wheelchair at all. The project you see above is Qolo, a hybrid exoskeleton and wheelchair that can sit or stand. You could talk to standing people at eye level without losing the advantages of a conventional chair.
Audi gives Airbus' flying taxi concept a stylish makeover
Did you think Airbus' Pop.Up flying taxi concept was a little drab? So did Audi. It teamed up with Airbus and Italdesign to unveil Pop.Up Next, a reworked version of the two-seat autonomous vehicle concept. The new version is more stylish than the mostly functional original, and borrows more than a few cues from Audi's current design language. However, it should also be more practical -- it's supposed to be "significantly" lighter than the original, which is rather important for a hybrid passenger drone.
Airbus unveils an autonomous, modular flying car concept
Flying cars face many obstacles, but one of the biggest is accommodating all the parts needed to both drive and fly -- their designs amount to big, heavy compromises. Airbus and Italdesign want to try something different. They've just unveiled the Pop.Up, an autonomous concept that uses a modular passenger capsule to switch between four-wheeled ground transport and quadcopter flight. All you do is tell the vehicle's AI where to go -- it'll snap on air or ground modules based on both the available routes and your habits. Airbus even floats the possibility of shuttling your capsule through hyperloop tubes when they're available.
Toyota, Honda, and Italdesign compete for attention in Geneva
Looks like Geneva's the place to be this week for those looking for a glimpse of a more fuel-efficient, sci fi-inspired future, with car companies doing their best to out-do one another with their respective concept vehicles on display at the Geneva Motor Show. Three of the vehicles unveiled so far are the Hybrid-X from Toyota (top left), the Small Hybrid Sports from Honda (top right), and the VAD.HO from Italdesign (bottom). Both the Toyota and Honda cars are based on advanced versions of the company's current gas/electric hybrid engines, which means that even if the concepts themselves don't make it to the assembly line, their innards could well find their way into some of the company's other vehicles. Italdesign's VAD.HO concept car, on the other hand, opts to use BMW's Hydrogen 7 engine, which is also equally capable of running on plain old gasoline. Sure to attract the most attention, however, is what's wrapped around that engine, with the car sporting a long and mean design with room for just one passenger, not to mention an interior equipped with joystick controls and a full compliment of video screens. Click on through for a couple of larger pics of each, then hit up the appropriate links below to check 'em out from every angle.Read - Autoblog Green, Toyota Hybrid-XRead - Autoblog Green, Honda Small Hybrid SportsRead - Winding Road, Italdesign VAD.HO
