Design Challenge at LA Auto show 2008 goes futuristic! December 01, 2008

What will race cars be like in the year 2025?
That was the question posed to the designers who participated in the fifth annual Design Los Angeles conference held on the second day of the LA Autoshow. According to the nine car design studios (from Mercedes, Mazda, Audi, BMW, Volkswagen, GM, Mitsubishi, Honda, Toyota) whose work was on display, race cars will be aerodynamic, tricked out with stuff like omnidirectional wheels and tons of computer gadgetry and they certainly won't run on fossil fuel. Instead they'll be powered by hydrogen, algae, sunlight and electricity. Mazda, who took the win with their designs for the Kaan, envisions a future where race cars compete in groups (becoming increasingly aerodynamic as they pull closer to one another) and gain energy from contact with roads which have been resurfaced with a sub-level electro conductive polymer. Teamwork will be big in the future evidently-just as it was in this design challenge. We had a chance to speak with Jacques Flynn from the winning team. We asked him all about cars in the future and then we asked him the most important question-who gets to keep the trophy?-apparently he and his teammates will have to share it! Watch the video interview: Coming soon: what the other teams at the LA Design Challenge have to say.... Related links LA Design Challenge