We've seen some wild ideas for cars here at Autopia, but this funky EV mashup of a Smart car, a washing machine and R2-D2 takes the prize.
The all-electric Cube looks like it was designed by Maytag, but it's the work of industrial designer Carlos Mendez. Like so many other wild concepts, it's nothing more than thoughts in his head and pixels on his screen, but it definitely challenges the notion of personal transport. Mendez, a graduate of the California Art Center College of Design, thinks cars are to big, too complex and too inefficient.
"People today ride around in cars that are more than ten times their size and weight," he told Wired.com. "The objective of transportation should be to move you and not the car. So, the Cube was designed around the human scale which means a much smaller footprint."
To keep that footprint as small as possible, Mendez envisions the Cube as a configurable one-size-fits-all-needs vehicle. Owners would purchase accessories like roll cages, flatbeds and windshields to tailor the EV to their needs and desires. That also would make the car a cinch to ship. Not only is it a box, but it's super-light and has retractable wheels. Think how easily you could stack them.
Mendez doesn't expect to see these things filling our freeways, but he says they'd be great for running around the neighborhood or as "a little utility workhorse for developing countries."
We can see Woz using one to play polo.
Image: Mendez Industrial Designer
