Toyota’s Tokyo motor show stand this year will feature a total of eight unique concept projects, five of which are world premieres. For us, the most fun-looking of them all is the FV2, a vehicle that promises to be a great drive “by connecting physically and emotionally with the driver.”
It’s a new kind of vehicle, with its sights set firmly on the future, and it not only looks like it’s from 2023, but it’s also controlled in new and unique manner. Gone is the old fashioned steering wheel, and the FV2 gets its input via the driver shifting his or her weight front, back or to the side. It definitely is a more organic way to accelerate and go around corners, but I bet it’s disconcerting to try out at first…
Interestingly, Toyota promises the fun levels one experiences when guiding this narrow and peculiar looking vehicle down a twisty road increase over time, and end up emotionally involving the driver in the same kind of relationship “that a rider might have with his or her horse.” However, unlike other animals from the Equus genus (zebras included), the FV2 can be interacted with via a specially designed app that accumulates driver information over time (and makes sense of it) in an attempt for the user/operator to “grow together” with it…
The Japanese are really into getting affection from machines mimicking real life animals (and even people), so we wouldn’t be too wrong in calling this a very advanced Tamagotchi riding on four (weirdly placed) wheels – we’re curious to see some live photos of it, and a more detailed explanation about its control method.
By Andrei Nedelea
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