Latest Cars News Blog: concept

One of the most intriguing features from yesterday's Nissan NV2500 Concept, aside from the origami-like folding doors everywhere and fold out steps aplenty, is the central workstation, featuring a striking and Jetsonesque laser keyboard. While not new, laser keyboards haven't had the market penetration their inventors hoped for yet and public awareness of the product like this one from Celluon makes it seem like a whiz-bang feature from a Buck Rogers future.

That fancy-pants keyboard folds away into a kiosk holding a mounted flatscreen monitor running a nondescript computer able to hook up to the internet via a 3G wireless connection. Great stuff for reviewing drawings and proposals, then selling angry emails at inept zoning and inspection officials. To make things more comfy, Nissan equipped this industrial workhorse with a layout that makes the normal jobsite office of piece of plywood over two sawhorses look like it came from the stone age. The swiveling seat does double duty as both passenger seat and super comfortable double-armed work chair, hey, it even swivels around to talk shop over the folding mini-conference table.

This brings us to a sad point. This panel van has a nicer work center than we do, and we work on computers all day. Aside from the silly and hard to use laser keyboard, this thing with its overhead skylight, the natural bamboo walls and floor, the nice airy environment when all the doors are open and that swank chair it all makes our blogging burrow seem pretty funky.

Last January, Audi debuted it’s Sportback Sedan Concept at the Detroit Auto Show, an A7 that was expected to arrive by next year. Naturally, the A6 comes first and Audi decided to pattern the look of the A6 based on the Sportback concept. We don’t know if we will ever get to see the Sportback in reality, but let’s keep our fingers crossed. The biggest design evolution of the Sportback is what makes us wish that this sedan will materialize.