Nissan's Teatro for Dayz: A crazy name for a crazy car
It's hard to stake a claim to silliest car concept at a show like the Tokyo Motor Show, but Nissan is probably, no definitely, the winner. What other car lets you play an RPG across almost the whole interior, or lets you splash the seats (and steering wheel) with grass, leopard skin, or adorably giant wooly patterns? There isn't one. Teatro for Dayz is the free-spirited step-sister of Nissan's serious, buttoned-down self-driving EV, and it's Nissan's hope that it'll convince non-auto fans to, well, take an interest.
Satoru Tai, Nissan's Executive Design Director posits it as a "canvas" for the owner. It's not a car, it's a high-end conceptual gadget you can also sit and drive around in -- it's pitched to customers that are still children. (For now). Tai adds, in the press release: "... through design we typically try to convey a sense of acceleration, power, or supreme quality. But these values do not resonate with share natives. If anything, such car traits just call to mind old-fashioned technology that bears little relevance to their lives." (If you weren't paying attention, share natives are Nissan's way of labelling younger customers that have grown up with the internet.) Accelerometers and other dash staples only appear on the surfaces when the driver wants them to be seen.
As noted earlier, Nissan wants to snag people that normally aren't interested in cars. A spokesman explains that because it's an EV, you could park up anywhere and then it's is no longer a transport vehicle -- it's an entertainment space. Taking a looking inside, the car is spacious, anonymous-but-modern-looking. (That said, the brightness of so many lit-up surfaces soon tired my eyes.)
Nissan is using projectors at this early stage to demonstrate the possibilities of a car interior literally covered in screens, but once the company has sorted out getting displays on all the surfaces seen on this early model, it aims to extend them to both the car doors and the windows, bringing it dangerously close to one giant interactive digital play-area powered by a giant EV battery. The name is ridiculous. The technology? Not quite there. But the idea? It's not a completely bad one.
