The Toyota iQ’s rear-window curtain airbag deployed from the roof lining above the back glass. Developed to help protect rear passengers’ heads in a rear-end collision, it addressed an obv
A factory pickup is one thing. A truck ready for a week in the Australian outback is another. Chery wants the Stockman to handle both, so it has teamed up with local off-road specialist Ironman 4x4 to
Honda launched the City and Motocompo together in Japan in 1981. The Motocompo was a small petrol-powered scooter designed to fold down and travel inside the City’s luggage compartment. The two
What was the Mercedes braking bag? It was an experimental underbody airbag shown as part of the ESF 2009 safety programme. When sensors judged a collision unavoidable, the device would deploy a high-f
Open the boot of most small cars from the 1960s and you would expect shopping, a spare wheel or perhaps a toolbox. In a Citroën 2CV Sahara, the engine would be taking up much of that space. The o
A Porsche with oars sounds like something its owner bought after an unfortunate encounter with a flooded road. In the 1950s, however, Porsche was developing a vehicle for which getting into the water
The Ford Nucleon looks as though someone moved the passengers forward to make room for a very important piece of luggage. Its cabin sits near the nose, leaving an enormous rear section between the fin
Picture an older car with a large metal cylinder fastened behind its boot. Pipes lead forward, and there may be another conspicuous piece of plumbing where its owner once kept the luggage. The install
A classic car could provide a cigarette lighter within easy reach of the driver, another for the front passenger and sometimes individual ashtrays for the people in the back. Yet bring a cup of coffee
Inside a modern automotive design studio, there are enormous screens, virtual-reality headsets, laser scanners, 3D printers and computers capable of rendering a car so convincingly that its paint appe