Cars, Many Years From Now

The Independent: Fine. I’m feeling absolutely fine, because the jet lag has worn off and I’m at the 2005 Tokyo Motor Show. Honda is feeling fine, too. “Fine Technology, Fine Times, Feel FINE!” is its motor show motto. And there’s more fine-ness at Toyota, in whose Fine-X you can discover that “Ecology and Emotion meet in a fun-to-drive time in which you can enjoy the joy of steering freely at will”. Fine words, indeed.
Specifically, you can enjoy steering the Fine-X nose-first into a parking space then sliding the rear end in to complete the manoeuvre, thanks to four independently steering wheels able to turn sideways. It’s a parkophobic’s dream, able also to do an about-face in its own length by steering each wheel through 45 degrees and making the rear wheels rotate in the opposite direction from the front ones.
As you might expect, in a show strong on hybrids and cars powered by electric fuel cells, the Fine-X with its vast gullwing doors and vegetable-matter, CO2-neutral interior features both technologies. And back at Honda we find fuel-cell technology pushed ever further with the long, low, sleek FCX concept, whose “vertical flow” cells are so compact they can fit into the structure’s backbone. You can also feed the FCX the hydrogen it needs from Honda’s Home Energy Station, which converts natural gas into hydrogen and minimal carbon dioxide.
Tokyo’s take on the cars of the future [The Independent]