Concept cars as statements of the future: Unrestrained by safety regulations and practicality, automakers use them to show off their visions of what their products may look like in years to come. The reasonable ones often make it to production, like the Ford Atlas that presaged the 2015 F-150. The crazier ones... not so much.
Toyota's new U^2 concept falls somewhere in between. Nicknamed the Urban Utility, it's made by the automaker's Calty Design Research Team. Toyota says it's meant to "reflect the lifestyle and needs of an entrepreneurial, urban driver." In other words, it's made for millennials, the startup-crazy city dwellers who just aren't buying cars the way their predecessors did.
The U2 includes features that don't often appear in production vehicles, but which the brains behind it think will appeal to young people used to customizing their smartphones. Calty packed in a utility rail system inside that can be configured to hold things like bikes or groceries, a removable front passenger seat, a retractable roof, a roll-back roof, a tailgate that can be folded into a ramp, and an iPad for a central console. By making a car infinitely customizable, owners can maximize both practicality and individuality. Naturally, the car is a small SUV, or crossover, the design trend of the decade.
The end result reminds us of "The Homer," the convoluted car designed by Homer Simpson that included all the things he wanted, like jumbo cup holders, horns that play "La Cucaracha," and muzzles for the kids. The U2 is obviously a better (and more humane) design, but like The Homer, it's a pile of ideas stuffed into one vehicle.
We're on the precipice of a fundamental shift in the way cars are designed and driven. Toyota hasn't said whether it plans to put some version of the U2 into production, our guess is that it won't. But keep an eye out for some of these features in upcoming models: If this is what the automaker thinks young car buyers want, there's a good chance it will give it to them.
