The thing about really old car companies is that they seem to enjoy taking the gulf of time they’ve been in existence and projecting it into the future.
Rolls-Royce, the 110-year-old purveyor of rolling boutique enclaves for the horses and mahogany set, just looked ahead and saw something…intergalactic?
The Rolls-Royce VISION NEXT 100, unveiled today in London, is being billed as the company’s first “vision vehicle” — a conceptual look at the ultimate luxury car of tomorrow. Actually, make that date a little further in the future, perhaps sometime after the empire strikes back but before the Jedi returns.
Because vehicles aren’t vehicles anymore, the automaker refers to the concept as a mobility provider. It consulted with customers (“patrons,” in Rolls parlance) to identify the luxury elements they couldn’t do without, and the features they’d want to see in the future. Designers then blended them into this somewhat scary but undeniably futuristic concept.
“With the Rolls-Royce VISION NEXT 100 we were mindful not to dwell on the past,” said Giles Taylor, the company’s design director, in a statement. “We wanted to be as innovative as possible and at the same time transcend the design history of the marque.”
While the Spirit of Ecstasy hood ornament remains, the concept’s fenders took on the shape of a TIE fighter. Under the hood, the company imagines a propulsion source that isn’t a gasoline-powered V12. In the future, an owner will probably be taxed for even thinking of such a thing.
Inside the concept, Rolls envisions a digitally connected cockpit where all functions are controlled by the “Voice of Eleanor” — an artificial intelligence system that anticipates and responds to your every whim. The name alludes to Eleanor Thornton, the woman on which the hood ornament was modeled in 1911.
All this Skynet-like technology might sound unsettling, but rest assured: there will still be a handcrafted interior and lots of real wood trim in the future. Oh, and an analog clock.
If the name VISION NEXT 100 (the name is screamed, like a partisan tweet) seems familiar, it should. Parent company BMW released a Tron-like concept of the same name back in March.
[Images: Rolls-Royce]
So, quad fender skirts? I approve.
The rest of this looks straight off the Demolition Man set. We don’t have to wonder where the dignity went, because it never had any.
Fender skirts. Now there’s somthing that needs to come back, preferably to all four wheels. I want my i-Robot Audi already.
I hear that the Custom Wheel & Spoke lobby is very much against this though.
Nice roofline
Nice rear window/kickup at the taillights.
Hugo Junkers just called, he wants his (wheel) pants back…
http://greenairdesigns.com/ejcgallery/displayimage.php?pid=882
It looks like someone decided to revive one of Gordon Buehrig’s less successful designs, the Tasco.
http://www.macsmotorcitygarage.com/2012/12/18/a-second-look-at-the-1948-tasco/
Good observation. It does bear a striking resemblance.
Yay! Skinny tires are coming back!
Cheaper & better in snow.
The pedestrian safety element is wanting… unless the fenders move inward and gently squeeze the pedestrian and instantaneously lift him or her out of the way of the hood, instead of squishing him or her like a lobster claw.
The pedestrian intake is on either side of the grill. Thanks to their high water content, they help to cool the brakes.
Seriously, that’s a lot of real estate for a two-seater. Wondering if the skirts turn with the wheels or are they some kind of Mecanum wheel. Also not convinced the video isn’t all CGI. Clam shell roof is pretty cool, I’ll bet Elon Musk is pissed he didn’t think of that first.
That is disturbing on so many levels.
I suspect the car is built like a tank with all that tire protection because it isn’t very good at driving itself.
It needs a set of curb feelers.
Wow, someone was watching “Minority Report.”
The precogs say…sales failure…
“…there will still be a handcrafted interior and lots of real wood trim in the future. Oh, and an analog clock.”
Show, don’t tell, Rolls-Royce.
Thing is, with it being a Rolls-Royce, their take on the interior of the future ultraluxury car would actually have been more interesting than the exterior.
[EDIT: Seems they did show the interior. My bad.]
Meh… Call me when it can take off and land in my driveway.
Kind of looks like a 1930’s Bugatti to me. Instead of futuristic, it looks art deco to my eye.
Looks like it might make a damn good speedboat.
Finally, after years of pandering to the wealthy, RR has come to it’s senses.
It looks like a Blade Runner “Spinner,” to my eyes. You know, for that rich Tyrell Corp guy who got his eyes pushed in by Rutger.
I’ll bet the old line RR people are aghast at this “exercise”. “Now those horrid BMW people have gone too far!”
The ‘old money’ British upper classes…..addicted to tweed, laudanum and boy-buggery…don’t exist anymore. It’s mostly new money in the UK that buys RRs….football (called ‘soccer’ in Murica) stars, Arab oil sheikhs and Indian and Pakistani businessmen. They’d love a car like this.
‘In the future, an owner will probably be taxed for even thinking of such a thing.’
You’ve been conditioned.
The Rolls is in the shop.
Well Whattadya know, yet another great site to add to my reader!
Four wheels/tires on the corners, engine up front, passengers caccooned behind….how is that futuristic? Same layout as the original Silver Ghost. The Tatra, Tucker, and Dymaxion in their day were futuristic. This thing is a rapper’s wet dream of a current iteration car.
Get rid of the wheels/tires maybe. Do we really have to have prime movers on all automobiles? Or even battery-fed motors? Who says passengers need to sit amidship? Or even sit for that matter.
So many possibilities these guys haven’t considered.