Nissan Design GT-R (X) 2050 Autonomous Concept

Batman Beyond

I’m pretty sure Batman wants a GT-R 2050 autonomous car. So the sooner JB Choi gets it from concept into production, the better. The citizens of Gotham City are depending on it.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Flashback to 1970. Back then, the term “minivan” had yet to be coined, SUVs were primarily used by outdoor surveyors, and a new kind of supercar emerged wearing the unfamiliar badging “GT-R” in Japan. And future car designer Jaebum “JB” Choi was still decades away from being born in Seoul, South Korea. A lot can change in 50 years. Like, say, Batman being portrayed by Adam West, Michael Keaton, Christian Bale, and Legos.

nissan gt-r 2050 concept

Choi, like many of the graduating seniors at ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, Calif., looked to the future for his final thesis – not 50 years, but the year 2050. He selected a vehicle with a rebel soul – the Nissan GT-R – for a design study in a future autonomous era when machines can embody a driver’s emotion through a physical connection.

nissan 2050 — The completed project runs just under 10 feet long and sits just over two feet high. The single occupant, the driver, rests horizontally in a “prone” position with limbs extended in an X-shape. The driver wears a futuristic, form-fitting suit and helmet that resembles a superbike riders’ protective helmets and leathers.

As a “wearable machine,” Choi envisions that connecting the human brain to the computer’s would provide better performance than ‘ordinary’ self-driving cars. He says the vehicle imitates the shape of the human body so it can efficiently protect the brain.

nissan — “JB is a super-talented, super-creative designer and his ideas about future supercars driven by brain-to-vehicle integration fit perfectly with Nissan’s advanced work in the B2V field,” said NDA Vice President David Woodhouse. “His thesis was all about demonstrating the emotional connection technology can create, and the benefit that it can deliver for customers. It was super exciting for the NDA team to help JB give form to this idea as a 1:1 model.”

As a vehicle that would be ‘driven’, most likely at night, maneuverability would be a critical part of its high-power electric performance. Choi imagines the vehicle’s one-piece wheel/tire units as having a shape close to square, allowing the vehicle to turn 360 degrees. The outer tire diameter measures 21 inches and inner wheel circle is 15 inches. The wheels’ spoke pattern was designed to help the wheel cool down fast, even under extreme braking.

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ABOUT Nissan Motor Corporation^®

Nissan first came to the United States to sell vehicles in 1958 and began importing and making Datsun vehicles in the United States under the Nissan Motor Corporation in U.S.A. (NMC), name in 1960. In 1990, Nissan North America Inc. (NNA), was created to coordinate all of Nissan’s various activities in North America to enhance the design, development, manufacturing, and marketing of Nissan vehicles. In 1998, the two organizations merged operations under the Nissan North America, Inc., name. Headquartered in Franklin, Tennessee, Nissan’s North American operations include automotive styling, engineering, consumer and corporate financing, sales and marketing, distribution and manufacturing for the United States, Canada, and Mexico.