dumbest thing ever in my opinion.......not even concept worthy.

I agree. This is one of the dumbest ideas I've ever seen.

What the guy said... says it all....

"Emotion is the added value to this....."

"We really want to achieve a higher emotional plane out of this...."

It's all about "emotions". How you "feel".

Not about how many people would be condemned to death because of something like that.

But then again, in today's society, everything is all about how you feel... right?

It was interesting until the fabric wrinkled up as the door opened and it looked like the car was taking off its pantyhose...

"GINA is an acronym . . . "

For what? I listened to it three times; still don't get it.

G -- geometry.
I -- function? what?
N -- "n" (infinite number) possibilities. Ooh, how mathy.
A -- adaptations.

They need to add Very Annoying on to the front of that acronym.

I think the I and N together represented "Infinite Number." G was all of that "Geometry (shapes) and function" nonsense.

I have no idea who that guy is, but I hate him. All I want to know is, what if I spill coffee on the damn thing? or mud, grease, UV radiation, bugs, asphalt tar, or any of the other shit that stains a car on the road? Give me paint and wax any day. "Sorry honey, the cat shredded your fenders again..."

Huh.

I totally missed that.

Way to not evolve guys.

That concept is one of the most remarkable things in automotive engineering to come along in decades.

Less weight/better fuel economy, real time aerodynamics changes, lower manufacturing costs, safer frame design for collisions.

The only drawbacks would be durability. Can a thief steal your car by cutting into it with a pen knife? Kevlar and other materials would solve that.

Think outside your boxes.

That's bullshit Ian.

What you saw in that video is a death trap.

An automobile needs the surrounding steel body to help absorb impact and crumble properly in an accident.

If it didn't, we would have had fiberglass vehicles or vehicles made from other lightweight components years ago.

This concept is a death sentence for thousands of people. All for what?

It's probably useless to even discuss this concept. It would never pass safety tests and rightfully so.

I gotta disagree. It might look good in your driveway....for a couple weeks maybe..... Why not take the stupid fabric skin off, keep the rest of the design and use a fixed fiberglass body?

Wasn't the canvas-on-frame design used on Sopwith Camel biplanes in 1917?

I actually find that pretty cool and if the frame is done right it will be just as safe or safer as any other car on the road and just think no more door dings.

cough corvette cough

You can cut Kevlar with a knife easily.

Beyond that, Kevlar is expensive as hell. Might as well make it out of carbon nanotubes, or hardened khorium.

build it from unobtanium.

Wow. And here I thought race car technology used a steel cagework, and not all that other shit around it to make them strong... Not to mention, a LOT of sports cars use fiberglass (aka, CORVETTE, since well, the beginning)... Or the Saturn that used molded plastic...

If you're relying on the body panels to make a car "safe", methinks you don't know much about automobiles in general...

You should try listening more and talking less.

It uses a space frame chassis, ie. NASCAR, Tube Buggies, etc. Safer than current chassis designs.

nerd.

What server?

I heard what was said. It was about as useful as "the check is in the mail".

How does a body design of cloth keep projectiles from entering the passenger compartment such as rocks and whatever kicked up from other vehicles?

If this thing survives government and private independent crash tests (from all sides), then maybe I would become a believer. Until then I am a skeptic and think it is dangerous.

vaGINA

Interesting. but would have even been better if the guy hadn't spent the entire presentation talking in cliche's or buzzwords. That in itself means it's dead end project, that will never see the light of day.

You honestly think it's made of cloth? Maybe their budget was tight and they used old t-shirts.

Do me a favor, go outside and find a car (since you obviously don't own one). Open the door. Notice how the door has an inside and an outside, and both are made of different materials. I bet the BMW engineers are smart enough to create a passenger compartment that is safe for the occupants.

Yeah..... That must be it Ian. I don't own a vehicle so I don't know how one operates.

Maybe for added bullshit you should have claimed I have never even driven a vehicle.

If you think a vehicle wrapped in fabric is fine for the public, you are entitled to your opinion.

However, there will never be cars like this on the road because they are not practical for numerous reasons that seem to elude you. The primary reason being it would never be approved by the government.

Not surpising considering the idiots who comprise our government.

Anyway, you are derailing this thread, get back to the parts where you didn't pay attention to the video and don't have any common sense about physics, it was more entertaining.

No where did I state the car was practical. It's innovative, and like innovative concepts before it, parts of it may show up on production cars in the future. Just like headlights that turn, cars that lower themselves at speed to decrease drag coefficient, cars with (holy shit) cruise control, cars with navigation systems. All things once deemed impractical, impossible or dangerous.

Go back to living in your miserable sheltered world of searching the internet so you can fool people into thinking you're informed about the world around you. Fucking hermit.

Sweet baby jeebus you all are reactionary as hell today. Did some of you manage to forget your meds?

Anywho, it's not a bad thought. IIRC, aerodynamic requirements for vehicles currently exist as a compromise. What works well at low speed isn't necessarily good for high speed, so having a vehicle that can be adaptive is likely a good thing.

BTW, here's another link without the YT smarminess.

As for the nonsense in the post from others:

• It's very possible to have a tear resistant fabric or flexible material that would allow for durability.
• It's also very possible to have a flexible outer surface AND have actual aluminum/steel/fiberglass underneath that to protect from penetration.
• This is a concept vehicle, and probably an expensive one. It's also a convertible. I wouldn't be worried about the whole "penknife break-in" scenario. Windows don't offer all that much protection, nor do current fabric convertible tops, yet vehicle owners manage to continue to get by just fine.
• It's easy to design a cage that doesn't depend on the vehicle's skin to any large degree while still protecting the occupants. Might make fixing crash damage more costly, but it's certainly doable.
• Even if it did end up being a death sentence, those people chose to purchase said vehicle anyway. They need to do the research themselves - can't pin everything on the manufacturer and absolve the consumer of all responsibility for their actions, now can you?