ShareBMW has built a concept car that has a flexible skin over a skeletal structure. This allows the car to transform and appear more like an animal with expressive emotions than an inanimate object.
Youtube link: http://youtube.com/watch?v=kTYiEkQYhWY
Jet Blue is soon going to use 100 seat jets to offer flights from Long Beach to San Jose, Seattle and Austin, with one way trips as low as $39 (see LA Times article).
The jets will have the typical wide leather seats Jet Blue is famous for with 2 seats on both sides of the aisle. So they should actually be more comfortable than Jet Blue’s larger jets, which have 3 seats on both sides of the aisle.
The current competition for such a trip is (a) a 5 hour car ride costing about $50 in gas or (b) a 7 hour bus ride costing about $40. Let me assure you that those alternatives are far worse. The car ride requires your constant attention (and has a 10% chance of a speeding ticket) and the bus ride is cramped and uncomfortable (with a 10% chance of fearing the guy in the seat in front of you). Flying between smaller airports is in contrast rather pleasant.
If Jet Blue succeeds, they will be flying to more and more cities using 100 seat jets. If they would fly from Burbank to San Jose & San Francisco, that would be particularly magnificent. I can’t wait.
If you are interested in the future of car design, or how to start an innovative physical products company, there is no more interesting company to watch than Tesla Motors (wikipedia), which is developing an all electric 2 seat sports car.
It has great range (200 miles), incredible performance (3.9 seconds to go from 0 to 60 miles per hour; top speed of 130 miles per hour), gets the equivalent of 135 miles per gallon (but electricity costs 2 cents per mile), and is relatively cheap for a startup sports car ($100k). Oh, and it’s a rather beautiful car (http://www.teslamotors.com/). 380 people have already put down a deposit.
I highly recommend their blogs, which you can find here (http://www.teslamotors.com/blogs.php?js_enabled=1). The blogs cover all aspects of their business. The innovation isn’t just in the cars, but how they have re-imagined the car dealership (you could see your car being worked on in a crystal clean room, for example), and the refueling station (they are offering roof mounted solar panel systems for home recharging).
And in 2010 they will start selling a sedan for $50,000 to $70,000.
Update, 5/17/07: Apparently they plan on selling a third vehicle in the $30,000 range after the roadster and the sedan. See this interview for more information on founder Elon Musk’s take on Tesla: http://www.autobloggreen.com/2006/07/26/exclusive-q-and-a-with-elon-musk-on-the-tesla-roadster-and-the-fut/
Update, 6/12/07: A great article on the founding of Tesla Motors, from Vanity Fair: http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/05/tesla200705?currentPage=1Â
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