At the Audi Design Universe, up-and-coming students create design prototypes that will be presented as their visions of tomorrow’s mobility. We’re here to show you the good, bad and ugly from this year’s presentations.
I couldn’t look at the Audi Design Universe prototypes seriously, and you’ll see why as I turn my sarcasm up to 11 and settle in for a joyride of disturbed visions of the future.
This awesome lighting concept appears to use LEDs behind a bank of miniature platforms. Even though this is a nice idea, I can confirm that it all goes downhill from here.
These crazy alloys with a big ‘X’ across them would probably give other drivers on the road a headache as they’re forced to endure a high-speed flickering. Giving your enemies a headache, one, aerodynamics, nil.
I’ll let that sink in. Go ahead, take another look. This is a design presentation that Audi’s lead designers will see. Awful, isn’t it? My favourite part about this is the guy who’s laughing like, “I thought this was a joke project.”
Apparently somebody didn’t get the memo about pitching their ideas to Audi’s designers. You know… the people who make cars for a living. So, someone made a Fitbit clone. Bravo! At least it’s intended to unlock your car. If only there was a way to unlock a car without your keys… like… keyless entry.
Here’s the brake lights of that nice headlight concept from before. I just had a thought, though. Imagine someone rear-ending your car even slightly. You’d have to ring up your insurance company like, “Hey, I need to make a claim on my brake lights. How many are damaged? All one-hundred and fifty-five.” No, thank you.
Futuristic key fob (hopefully not to scale), or flying space ship of the future? You decide.
Audi’s Head of Design, Marc Lichte, points at something.
The Audi Fish brings a smile to the man in the orange sweater and black scarf while his co-designer takes a look around and realises that nobody else designed an Audi Fish.
“Where we’re going, we don’t need doors.” Hang on tight! Don’t take the corners too sharply in this model, or you’ll end up on the floor watching it drive itself off in to the distance. Also, you’ll have to sit cross-legged because the future of mobility doesn’t have seats.
The Audi Fish gets a serious competitor in the Audi Ball. I seriously have no idea right now.
This looks interesting. A unique interior with head rests that completely obliterate your peripheral vision. Hopefully this is a concept for a self-driving car. We’re excited for Audi’s new MDF interiors.
This man polishes a hexagon.
These men laugh at a laptop while pointing at something on the screen. Can you say, “Staged photograph”? In the background, we get to see the wheel-less car of 2025.
This lady tries to figure out where you’re supposed to sit in the Audi Fish.
Here, we see another unique Audi concept that seems promising at first. It has subtle design references to a BAC Mono, and also has a removable base to give it a number of practical uses. However, there’s one big down side…
…if you were thinking of having a chat with your fellow passengers, think again. Also, if you’re planning on going over a speed bump in this car, you’re fresh out of luck because this one will scratch up the moment you go over a piece of gravel.
Electric mobility? No, thanks says the designers of tomorrow. We’ll just fill this car up with jet fuel and sell it to Batman. Imagine the bhp on this! Altogether now, “Rocketmaaaaan…”