Los Angeles (CA) – A design challenge of future cars has become a tradition at the L.A. Auto Show and this year certainly has revealed the wackiest concepts yet. General Motors’ Advanced Design California division has taken away the first prize in the past two years and has another good shot at coming out on top this year: The company imagines an “Ant” that can reconfigure itself into infinite shapes and that could carry today’s gas guzzling cars in 50 years.

Not surprisingly, the “L.A. Auto Show Robocar: 2057” challenge to designers is taking the wraps of some ideas of automotive designers that aren’t quite realistic today. Mercedes Benz, for example, has come up with the “SilverFlow”, a car whose shape is reminiscent of the manufacturers Silver Arrow racecars from the 1950s. However Mercedes-Benz imagines these cars to be built from “micro-metallic particles” that can be rearranged into different shapes for the car. Honda came up with the “124” (pronounced “one-to-four”) Solar Hybrid that would be shared by up to four people. Volkswagen presented the “Slipstream”, an autonomous vehicle that can stand up at slow speeds and lie down when you are speeding down in the Slipstream lane at 250 mph.   

Mercedes-Benz SilverFlow

VW Slipstream

Honda 124

However, somehow we prefer GM’s “Ant” concept, which, in its basic shape, resembles a pyramid with a wheel on each of the three corners of the basis. Other than most other concepts, GM has not created what we would consider a car today, but what designer Steve Anderson describes a mobility device. It also is not attached to one of GM’s car brands, but rather to the “OnStar” label. Anderson told us that GM views the Ant more like a service than a car.

Beneath a rather odd shape, GM imagines the Ant to be able to be able to reconfigure itself and adapt its shape to any situation. There are no windows in the surface, but “flat surface panels” that are connected with “artificial muscles” (electroactive polymer actuators), allowing a silent reconfiguration of body panels depending on their optimal street use. The panels are produced with single-walled carbon reactive polymer nanocomposites which incorporate the carbon nanotube battery in its structure, GM said.

Onstar Ant

 
The drive train could be made up of an “omni-directional mechanical propulsion provided by three independent Nanorb wheel systems,” GM said.

“Optimal Street use” can come in various shapes, of course. From being able to provide transportation within a 12 ft shell, the car can also transport other cars. Enthusiasts who cannot let go of their 20th century Ferraris and Corvettes could use the Ant as an foundation to continue driving their gas-guzzling racer: Anderson imagines the Ant to “crawl” under a car and carry today’s cars – which may have some trouble being driven in a world that has abandoned internal combustion engines or has put mileage limits on air-polluting vehicles.  

Ant carrying a Corvette

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