The cavalcade of goofy, little cars continues unabated here at Straightline. First there was Mini's re-imagined Mini Moke/Fiat Jolly Detroit-show silliness, the Beachcomber. Then this morning saw the reveal of Aston Martin's little dinghy, the Toyota iQ-based Cygnet concept.
Now Swiss-Mister Frank Rinderknecht of Rinspeed released renderings of the UC Mobility Concept that he will bring to next year's Geneva Auto Show. Where the Beachcomber is a life-size Barbie vehicle that will see production and the Cygnet is essentially a $20,000-plus bumper sticker that says "My other car is a real Aston Martin," the UC is an idea. The rather uninteresting white electric city car is incidental to Rinspeed's scheme.
The idea is that one would drive drive the 8-foot long "lovebug" via "a central joystick" around town for short trips. For longer trips, one would drive the little bugger to the train station, where waited a special rail-car loading system onto which you would drive your UC (something like on a ferry). When the train arrives at its destination, off you go in your UC. We've heard of a similar concept, which is widely known as a "taxi." Somehow, Rinspeed expects that something called the world wide web would be involved too.
Oh, the name? It stands for Urban Commuter and is also a play on the English-language for "You see?" It is also but one letter from the exclamation "uck!"
The concept is about 80 percent down on whimsy compared to just about any concept Rinspeed has ever done before.
stephen987 says:
10:11 AM, 12/16/09
Looks more like a Fiat 500 than the Fiat 500!
brickyards says:
11:53 PM, 12/16/09
With a bit of MiTo