Nissan Details the Teatro for Dayz Concept, It Still Seems Odd to Us

It seems like the vehicles we used to see in science fiction movies are beginning to take shape, which smells a little like a self-fulfilling prophecy. Do kids today really want cars with strange design and touch screens everywhere, or do we think they do because it’s what we were told to believe the future would look like.

As Satoru Tai, the project’s Executive Design Director, puts it, the whole idea revolved around building a car like “a clean canvas.” The idea is to reduce the manufacturer’s input into the way the car looks, and allow the users to create a personalized version of their own.

Nissan calls this next generation of customers the “share natives,” kids born in the midst of technological advancement that have no idea what life looked like before the internet and connected mobile devices. Their car will have to be an extension of their smartphone, fully interconnected and capable of offering at least the same amount of features - plus those specific to a car, obviously.

We’ve seen this trend spread around lately with Mercedes-Benz coming up with a somewhat similar concept in Tokyo - the Vision Tokyo - so it’s not just one carmaker that has this image of the future.

Since “sharing” is a very important concept for them, the Teatro for Dayz has been devised around that. Nissan's Product Planning General Manager Hidemi Sasaki says, “Share natives feel that time spent in a car should be time for connecting and sharing experiences with friends. We can no longer attract their attention with the same old values.”

Those “old values” Sasaki is talking about are precisely the things we’re looking for in a car right now. Satoru Tai explains, “For example, 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.”

I wouldn’t want to start a debate over this trend in the automotive industry because I’m afraid I’m going to say bad things and get labeled as a grumpy old man, but I do hope we’re still a few decades away from the time this will become the norm. Though I’m perfectly aware I’m being way too optimistic here.

Below you can watch two clips of the Nissan Teatro for Dayz, the first one being a presentation while the second shows some of the key men involved in the project talking about it.