When Toyota previewed the Fun-Vii concept a few weeks ago, we weren’t sure what to make of the oddball wedge-shaped car. Now that the concept has debuted at the Tokyo auto show, we have a better picture of what it’s all about.
Toyota initially described the Fun-Vii—“Fun Vehicle interactive internet”—as its vision for the future of motoring, in which “people, cars, and society are linked.” It appears that in the future smartphones will be the ties that bind us, as seemingly everything on the car can be accessed or controlled by a mobile device. The Fun-Vii’s body is one giant display that users can manipulate; everything from colors to graphics to messages can be swapped onto the exterior. Toyota may be onto something here. While renderings of the car show Facebook-like messages adorning the body, we think the functionality could be put to better use as a way of communicating with tailgaters—politely, of course.
The three-seat interior is dominated by a display that runs the length of the cabin. The driver gets an augmented-reality view out the windshield, with navigation and vehicle information projected onto the forward view rather than merely shown on a screen. There’s also a “navigation concierge,” which can verbally relay navigation and driving information to passengers. The Fun-Vii can communicate with other vehicles and infrastructure equipped with peer-to-peer tech, and can also update its own software via a network connection. What are the Fun-Vii’s production prospects? Probably close to nil, but we’d like to see some of its augmented-reality and display tech trickle into a production vehicle.
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