Jun 11 2008BMW Makes Morphable, Fabric-Covered Car

omfg i want one.. o_o

So... do you just wash it in your driveway or get it drycleaned..?

come on #2 why a silly question like that? I mean it's obvious you just set in on the gentle cycle with color safe bleach, no need to have to get it dry cleaned. Geez some people.

Either way it's got some sexy body lines to it

what happens when some asshole cuts your car with knife?..you go get your sewing machine? or that gomes with the car?

@4, I don't think this fabric is easily cut if it's the stuff I'm thinking of.

Although, I wonder if it will shrink in the rain?

I'd tap that!

I like how the engineer talks down to the audience. I really needed the term "geometry" explained. I'm glad he cleared that one up. I thought it meant studying rocks and shit.

this made me think of car lover guy from a few posts back. i bet he'd really tap that too

Has the name "GINA" something to do with the shape of the opened hood?

Best comment on Wired goes to cartouche:

"After seeing the opening in the hood, I see how GINA must be pronounced."

Brilliant!

Can't wait until I have to dryclean the birdshit off my car....or scrub it with "Stain Guard" :(

What's with the Lycra? Aren't Germans supposed to cover everything in black rubber?

Can I refer everyone to the comment I made on yesterday's post about cars with airbags on the hoods:

"7. The Imaginary Reviewer - June 10, 2008 4:51 PM

Wouldn't it just be easier to make entire cars out of airbags?"

Nice to see BMW are listening to yours truly...

Yeah this is great . . . until you get hit by a 2 ton SUV and realize that driving a car made out of cloth and rubber bands is maybe not the safest thing to do . . .

I wonder if Tide would make a giant Tide To Go pen for it?

Momboelitist -

That material reminds me of the stuff supposedly found at the crash at Roswell.

Looks like the front of my underwear when I wake up in the morning.

@9

I'm surprised the Geekologie writer didn't make a reference to that. Before I even read the car's name I thought "wow, its like driving a giant gray vagina" but now that I see that thats what BMW was going for I wondering how far they took their concept. . . maybe the exhaust smells like fish.

awww, it's cute.

i would morph it into "hug mode" and those little penguin nub arms would hold me! haha

@jackcrash, strangely enough I was thinking the same thing when I saw this on Ohgizmo early this morning.

That guy who has sex with cars is going to shit himself over this.

After you rob a bank to pay for this car, the cops will never be able to find you!

I think it is unattractive.

maybe if it came in black the ugly fabric wrinkles wouldnt show so much

doors that open and close?!! What will they think of next?

you would think that after the fabric relaxes or stretches out that it would just flap in the wind when your driving.

What happens when a bunch of kids come up and slit.... the body of the car?

anyone else notice the arm shadow in the background in this one?
http://www.geekologie.com/2008/06/11/bmw-6.jpg

Im gonna go ahead and say the name Gina originally had a VA in front it being that when the hood opens up it definitely resembles one.

Ok... so... It was nice of him to define acronym for us.
Now can he go tell the marketing department how acronym's work...

Although i guess GFNA wouldn't really work because the hood looks nothing like a vagfna...

vaGina?

fabric is too easily damaged.

unless they come up with indestructible fabric for it.

#28, deebz,

Whoa, you're right! There ARE arm shadows in the background! I didn't even see those. You have a really good eye.

After I saw your comment, I went back and looked at the pictures closely. I found the arm shadow in picture 6, but I also found shadows in some of the other pictures. Here's a list of what I was able to see:

bmw-3) arm with torso
bmw-4) torso
bmw-5) arm with torso, hand (very faint)
bmw-6) arm with torso
bmw-7) arm with torso

I just wonder if these shadows were supposed to be in the pictures. I can't tell if they are accidental or were Photoshopped.

...and then some fuckwit comes along and uses the sharp end of a key to gash the shit out of it. It'll never make production.

mine would be covered in acid-wash denim. so i can be extra rad.

No trunk? Where am I supposed to hide the bodies now? Then again, that stuff looks like it'd be pretty hard to clean, so I guess it's all good.

Ha! I guess for once it's a vagina AND a clown car!

comon guys, w/e it is definately an art called GINA. BMW got money for research so they are working on something and any concept is not for production. I really like the lights on the car may be we will see that kinda of light system in the cars comin ahead from bmw. WE use to have flip out lights backinthe days or some sort of hideaways. that is pretty impressive. Some people make their car look the same color, stealth, black on black where lights lens are also back so asthe rims. so it is just innovation through concepts. I mean i dont how strong that cloth is but since it got those ribs which can control how the cloth looks I think it will act better in a crash test. And let say so crash not at 100 miles an hour but at around 20 miles... at that point the damage will be what ... jsut replce the coth or put DENIM on it..lol.. it is a good chance that one day we get our cars tailored with our dress code.. lol

#32, perhaps the arms and torso reffer to a muscular system, which is my first impression of the car. A car with a biological structure.

Can I get it in black nylon and then morph into a sexy stocking clad leg, complete with fluffy slipper? I imagine I'd then be driving the tired equivalent of the lamp from "A Christmas Story".

But no wrinkles, please.

Well there are already plenty of cars out there that have soft tops and cutable doors like some jeeps. Probably wouldnt want to double park your new bmw in a bad neighborhood anyway.
As long as the metal underneath absorbs the crunch of a collision then the skin doesn't matter much.

Can I get mine in Valour or at least OLED cloth?

When it has the doors opened, it looks like one of those "flying" fish. I love the "eye" opening and closing for the lights but that Vagina shaped hood and the wrinkley opened doors is just ridiculous. I will like mine in rubber black to disguise the wrinkles. BTW, where is the top part of the car?

Idk, this seems not very functional. No wonder it belogs to a museum.

Well, all in all.. its pretty gay..... - -
but it's still neat.

other then the fact that it sucks ASS.

Next thing you know they're going to come out with another feature called DICK (Developing Internal Combustion Kompression) which will of course be able to "tap into" GINA's engine compartment to boost performance. Using the RUBR (Rapid Unleaded fuel BoosteR), which bears the familiar Ferrari horse logo and slips over DICK before inserting into GINA, will ensure complete driving pleasure and enjoyment for the owner of this BMW.

BTW, the denim model comes complete with air conditioning - they rip holes in the doors - and camel toe.

I AM SO GETING ONNE.I DONT CARE HOW MUCH IT IS

Uh, maybe I heard him wrong, but whoever said gina should be GFNA wasn't listening. Isn't the in GINA supposed to mean infinite?

@45.

He mentions in his acronym that N is for "infinite".

He says

"Gina is an acronym... a set of letters. That stand for Geometry (G), Function (F?), N is for a way of saying infinite number (whilst flailing arms about randomly) (N), Adaptations (A)."

GFNA... f$ck yeah

come on guys!!! this car has been made by BMW they wont b displaying the car with loop holes

dont u think d engineers would have thought about all d possible problems mentioned by u?????

Man, I know that this car or another model like this is going to be in a Bond film.

Anyone else see this as the beta version of the T-1000?

RUN!!!!

Does the car even have seatbelts? I'm sure they are hidden away there somewhere, but I couldn't see them.

IF it comes out & i wuz a million dollers richer i tould buy one

It makes me laugh how people talk about how someone could rip the fabric and that that's the reason it's not going to work. You do realise normal cars can be scratched right?..probaly easier than this car could be cut aswell. Overall the car looks cool tbh, kinda like a transformer with a suit on :P If it didn't have the wrinkles though it'd be better :D

That's a VERY impressive car and the concept really is interesting; reminds me vaguely of something I saw once while touring the House Of Tomorrow. A picture with the hood open and the roof up would have been nice too, but oh well.

Me, I can't help but wonder about the really practical questions, like how do you pop the hood to work on the rest of the engine? And with that many motorized parts, all the way down to opening the doors, if one of those motors goes wonky you know it'll cost a fortune to get that fixed. Anyone whose power windows have ever stopped working for no reason can attest to that. Watch body work and repairs be high enough to go broke on lol

After seeing the opening of the hood you could ad Va to the Gina

LMFAO this car is a joke. @ 100 mph the cloth will become a PARACHUTE! everywhere where wind hits it the cloth will dent and make pockets. Good idea, but man the hood was quite much. I know that somewhere in the BMW factory, some guy went "he-hey Frank, the hood looks like... Gina...va...Gina... OH SHIT!" *insert lightbulb here*

pretty pointless .
fabric will parachute at high speeds
probably highly susceptible to sharp objects.....
and the wrinkles look horrible on the doors
oh btw last time i checked bmw was a german company what`s english speaking guy doing there... oh ya designing stupid cars :(

not to mention it looks just like another ugly american car - solstice - did gm buy bmw??

on the positive side one can always blow buggers out of the nose right onto the car.

the design idea came from Hans` grandma`s slippers but after careful planning
end result looks somewhere between a sock and a retarded shark
this has gotta be the ugliest bmw to date

i bet 10 min drive @ high speeds will turn this car into swiss cheese because of all the flying gravel/insects etc

and where do you take it to do body work?? the tailor? oh dont forget to bring scissors when its time to fill up.

tip to all investors BMW = sell sell sell......

not to mention biodegradability - will all that fabric be recycled or just end up in landfill at least steel we can re - use.

design team`s on crack.

for all ppl that want one but cant afford it - not just buy a tent and a trailer - put one on top of the other
cut out a couple holes for doors and windows and nobody will be able to tell the difference from the real thing
human race is the only species that experiences a reverse evolution.
thankfully nibiru is near.

To all people commenting on the easily-damageable fabric and the potential for vandalism: a simple defensive measure should suffice.

I propose this: Install a proximity detector so the car knows when an intruder approaches. When an intruder is detected, have its headlights open, stay open for a while, then blink slowly several times. A hidden speaker will then ask, in a child's voice, "What's your name?" The intruder should have run away by that point.

is it eco-friendly?

the coolest parts are the engine and headlights. AWESOME, I WANT ONE TOO!

its just elastic stuff moving by metal stuff

I think it is genius in its purest form and i can already foresee the interior future safety features maybe not yet mentioned.

I heard of something coming out in the next 20 years called the skateboard. It's going to be a Hydrogen powered car that "natively" looks like a giant skateboard, but you can buy any body of your choice to attach to it and customize where the seats are. The motor and everything is in the floor! ITS KEWAL. :D

52. Sn0w

If you get a scratch on your car door do you take it to the repair shop and order a whole new door?

Yes the Car has its points...Breaking the normal in a sense of complexity, Like why did it take 90 years to change how we start cars?

could you leave it in the sun? would it shrink?

you know this is damn cool, i want one to, and im sure they would fix it so you could wash your car easyly ?, i hope..., anyway i want one but i want it where it can change its colors to..THAT WOULD BE SO DAMN FUCKING COOL.

hah the hood looks like a vagina

@58
.....what if intruders aproach from the back??

wooooaaahhh...bmw this is amazing U r know catching up wiht legendery cars like mayback, mayback exelero and the mother of cars the undisputed s-class...actually i only like M5 in BMW range of cars but with the concept csc and this fabric mophable concept, i think i'll change my mind...

i'm not too sure about the ears it has poking over the roof, makes it look like a big silver puppy dog. but still the fabric used would look great in a choice of colours, that car in flouescent pink please lol

The N does not stand for infinite directly. N permutations is a mathematical term for infinite. He clearly states that. Maybe he went a little too far in defining geometry, but if you remembered anything about geometry, you should remember n. Seriously. Also, if half of the people up there cared to pay attention, they would know that safety was considered in the model. Anyway, it is intuitive. What gets most damaged in car crashes? The body. Because it is made to crumple in newer cars. That is why there is more internal damage. There is a frame to this car, which could have the same properties. Plus the repair on body damage would be quick and simple. And I am sure the fabric is tested for endurance. And to 57 specifically: cars bodies are not made out of steel anymore. Thinking it is ugly is one thing, but you need to think your argument through a little more. Unless you like sounding like an idiot on the internet.

The idea of this car is by far the most innervated and the greatest idea I have ever seen. If I were to see this car on the market I would get one, not only for its idea, but it would save soo much on fuel due to the fact that it has a cloth shell rather than plastic or metal. This will go well with my idea of a new fuel source that I am trying to come up with.

holly potatoes :P,
this car is awsome, i wonder how much the car will be going for in the future ?

64. Ride*N*Smile

I don't buy a whole new door, my point was it would be easier to repair... It's a respray of the panel that got scratched (quite a bit for a decent job) vs a little bit of new material :P

wtf, im prety sure the GINA stands for vaGINA, did u see the sus engine thing on the bonnet??
good idea but.

Supper car!
Supper design!
I love it!

i hate bmw but this one is the shit i would get one

DAME that car is the shit. Id drive the hell outa i!