It's the Future™. Why Don't Cars Look Futuristic?
When you think back to the last scifi movie you watched, if you're like me, what stood out the most in the every day city scenes were the cars. This is where the set designers had a lot of creative freedom to make the various vehicles look wildly different from what we drive today, and from each other.
Minority Report had some awesome futuristic car designs. So did Will Smith's "I, Robot", and Blade Runner. I still sometimes scrub through Back to the Future II just to scope out the rad looking cars that are parked all around Hill Valley in 2015.
...Ssssssooooo...where are those cars today? With the exception of some beauties like the Model S and Model 3, new cars all seem to look like samey streamlined McVehicles. There is none of the daring, stylish futuristic aesthetic from these science fiction films.
It's not as if auto makers don't constantly show off such designs. They're teases like that. The concept for a new car always looks way more radical and interesting than what we actually get. The 'Rule of Boring' in action.
When such cars do come out, they are expensive and produced only in limited runs, or as kits. What is this baboozery? I'm not alone in feeling this way, either. The concept for the Chevy Volt was widely praised, and then the changes they made for the dull, "safe" final design were widely panned by those same automotive news outlets.
I don't know about you, but I want to live in the future that scifi promised me, and automotive design is a big part of that. There are some good reasons why the final versions of cars are less exciting, like material costs, but in many cases it's just a 'safer' design that market research and some joyless algorithm told them would appeal to the widest possible range of buyers.
What ever happened to cars with a distinct identity? Not made for everybody's tastes, but for the taste of a specific kind of person? Back when auto makers had a specific demographic in mind when designing a new car, and when cars were an expression of the driver's personality.
I do not want to hear that it complicates manufacturing in the age of 3D printing and generalized robotic fabrication. If automakers despair that millenials are opting out of car ownership because of the cost, preferring instead car share programs, public transit and bicycles (often electric) then take notes. You can persuade them to buy cars again if you make cars desirable again.
That's something Elon Musk said about the Roadster and Model S. That the electric car was going nowhere until it could be made into an object of desire. It had to shed the boring, responsible, environmental image because that's not sexy. He knew he had to make the electric car sexy to revive it, and he was right.
If Tesla, why not other auto makers? Why not all cars? There is no car which cannot be improved by making it sexier. If they can look cooler, what good reason is there why they shouldn't? Why should we live in a boring world when we don't have to? Make everything cooler, starting with cars.
Cool isn't only for sports cars either. Why not cool mini-vans? Why not cool delivery trucks? Is there actually any reason at all why any car shouldn't be fucking awesome? It's not like auto makers don't know how, either. They know how. They dangle it in front of us all the time, tantalizing us with designs they never put into production.
I don't want to hear excuses anymore. I don't want to gaze longingly at concepts that I'll never see on the highway. I assure you, I'm quite done with that. I don't know exactly how to communicate the extent to which I am totally, forever done with that.
No more disappointment! No more failed promises of a future never to be! Follow Elon's lead and make those promises real, post haste! Stop playing it so safe, reach for glory.......But maybe don't go too crazy with it:
i think cars dont look futuristic because of government regulations. these are cool. government needs to get there hands out of everything let people create
I hope cars will not be the future because at this moment big cities are overpopulated with cars and is some day period people waste a lot of time in trafic. I believe in copters. :)
We will see cars like this when gas engines are gone and we have only electric cars, plus maybe when company's like tesla and other new company's like google take over making cars.
I disagree. There is no reason that gas cars can't be sexier. If you can provide one, I'd love to hear it.
I am not saying a nice concept car with a big v8 or a VR38 engine would not be nice.
Is there much room left to improve combustion engines? They're very optimized these days. I expect it to be all electric going forward, there's plenty of room for improvement there.
Nope i can't see them getting any better. I do see some huge strides in the electric engines. Gonna be a huge decade for cars.
i agree with @anarcho-andrei
If it wasn't for the monopolies suppressing it all for their own greed, we have the technology, including free energy systems, to be hovering around like the fucking jetsons by now ;)
Now a days, the looks of the car or the desire of having a cool car...comes at a price
I don't think monopolies are what prevent us from violating conservation of energy, nor is free energy really necessary to do the kinds of things we want to accomplish in the future. Nuclear supplies more than enough power for deep space exploration, for example.
Technologies that tap into zero point energy are not breaking that principle either, but the petro-chemical monopolies certainly have a stake in not letting these devices go live ;)
http://www.collective-evolution.com/2013/10/11/multiple-scientists-confirm-the-reality-of-free-energy-heres-the-proof/
That's what I hear about every such technology. That the only reason it's not everywhere is because the big evil oil companies prevent it. But a little digging usually reveals them to be investor scams. Collective Evolution is not what I consider a credible scientific source.
I hope I'm wrong, but I'd bet good money that the technology in your article goes nowhere in the next decade and that it's not because it's being held back by anybody.
I hope you're wrong too :)
You know what? This is an excellent question. Why don't cars look sexier? You make an excellent point that, in the days of 3D printing and lightweight materials, there is no reason at all that fantastic designs aren't achievable.
Here's to hoping that at least one of these manufacturers gets the message. I'd even be satisfied with a return to an older sensibility for auto manufacturing, something like what was done with the Dodge Challenger and what is being done with the Ford Bronco.
Any escape from the current bland copy and paste banality of modern car design would be welcomed.
You mentioned the blade runner car, I think that's the one that stands out the most for me, the police car.
Source: Lacar.com
I know what you're saying but futuristic cars look like toys.
if possible i would like to have the red one... :P
You can have whatever you like. The futuristic look just isn't my thing.
yup...even i think so...my point is that term "futuristic" is referred to those cars which are capable of doing more than the present cars, whether speed, or flying in the air...
You say that like it's a bad thing.
design matters if you want make it move fast...and this fact was not know to the directors of the film "back to the future"...
The car of the future for me is this.
how about this one?? :P
lol
I think the next stage in the cars evolution is going to be backward to a more efficient use of space rather than the sleek but inefficient concept cars above. http://www.latimes.com/business/autos/la-fi-hy-disney-shuttles-20170428-story.html :(
Even that looks more futuristic than what we have now, tbh.