"Bursting One's Bubble" Gets a Different Meaning in Renault's Envisioned Future

Renault's most recent attempt makes no exception. The competition was run in collaboration with Central Saint Martins from the Univesity of Arts in London and was aimed at MA Industrial Design students. They were asked to imagine what a future autonomous and, most importantly, modular vehicle would look like, and it seems like the brief was intriguing enough to let get the creative juices flowing.

There were plenty of your "standard" entries - boxy, featureless vehicles (much like the Volkswagen Sedric Concept) that can platoon together as they ferry their human occupants to their destinations, but one submission, in particular, drew the attention of the jury.

The student's name is Yuchen Cai and her concept "car" is called "The Float." We used the quotation marks because you really wouldn't use that word to describe The Float if you saw it without any further explanations. "Globe, orb, glass ball," would all make far better choices, as would "what the hell?"

The concept is essentially a giant levitating globe that uses maglev technology to hover above the ground and travel in any direction. You could cover it with a white sheet, draw an angry face on it and scare the living hell out of everyone at night.

The vehicle is designed to offer both privacy and socializing opportunities. It comes either as a single balloon or as a bilobed dual-seater. The seats can swivel, and there's also a sliding door for access and egress. A magnetic belt around the vehicles allows them to be joined together, forming weirdly-shaped moving conglomerates of people trapped inside their own bubble.

We imagine the ride comfort is great due to the absence of any kind of contact with the road surface, but that's about the only exciting thing we can say about this concept. Besides, we feel it has one major flaw: if humankind had the technology to make floating cars, we'd be surprised if more people didn't want to take the wheel themselves. Anyone who's ever played WipEout knows what we're on about.