Motoring: Concepts to Reality

Not very often in motoring, do sketches from the drawing board make it to showrooms.

The radical designs fall victim to user data, government policies and yes, decisions from the board of the directors — the wise men.

Increasingly however, manufacturers are sticking to those radical plans.

And here are a few designs from top notch carmakers — untouched by bureaucracy — that’ll soon be seen on our roads, in the near future.

A four door Veyron
Okay, Bugatti are serious about the more grown-up Veyron. The Galibier ‘sedan’ has been in development since 2009 and after numerous changes to design and CEOs (three of them), the car is finally taking shape. Also, the car will be very, very expensive. Bugatti have claimed that the 1,000-bhp super sedan will carry a seven-figure price tag and going by photos of the interiors, it would seem the car’s worth every penny. 

The ‘autonomous trucks’

Mercedes-Benz are currently hard at work to make sure truckers can get some sleep without really going off the road. According to the company, in the ‘truck of 2025’,
drivers will need to intervene only “when required”. That’s because of a new piece of tech called the ‘highway pilot’ — a combination of cameras and sensors that make sure the vehicle travels in the same lane at a pre-set speed. In other words, a system that makes sure truckers never break a single rule — Wunderbar! Overtaking is manual though, and once the procedure is complete, the driver can hand over the vehicle’s controls to the ‘Highway Pilot’.

The Maserati Alfieri Concept

The car named after your Italian pen pal. This vision by Maserati was unveiled earlier this year at Geneva and reports claim the machine will be hitting the production line — untouched. Primarily, the green light is because the car, even if it’s still in beta, is completely functional. The Alfieri borrows a 4.7-litre V8 from Ferrari and the unit churns out 454bhp with 384 lb ft of torque. The car could go into production as early as 2016 and those who have escaped the recession in Europe, will be able to buy one for about 80,000 euro (about Rs 65 lakh)

The new Discovery line-up

This loaded concept of a car may not entirely make it to the production line but it certainly gives us an insight into the idea JLR are driving towards. The new models in Discovery series will be packed with features and a few reports are claiming a heavy emphasis on heads-up displays and assisted driving.
For example, Land Rover are currently testing the “invisible hood system” — in which, a network of tiny cameras placed in front of the car collaborate to make the terrain immediately appear, visually wiping off the front of the car. So, there’s absolutely no need, whatsoever, to strain your neck.