Nissan's Smiling Vehicle Mimics Human Emotions

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Nissan has revealed a new mechanically altered body material that is designed to mimic the emotions of a car’s driver.  The Nissan Smiling Vehicle features a polyurethane fiber lining and built-in animatronics to smile, frown or stay indifferent while on the road.

Automotive designers have often styled the front ends of vehicles to resemble faces, but Nissan has taken this trend in a new direction.  In a project with the Hara Design Institute Nippon Design Center, Nissan has developed a vehicle with a front-end facia that moves to form smiles, frowns and blank emotions.  The design employs an elastic, polyurethane-based material called ROICA and internal animatronics that move the mouth of the design upward, downward and at rest in the middle.  The result is a car whose facia smiles and frowns based on the control — and emotion — of the driver.

This isn’t the first time a vehicle has been designed to communicate visually with other vehicles.  However, concerns about road rage have left designers to keep their cars quiet.  While the Nissan Smiling Vehicle concept may not enrage other drivers on the road, it could at least increase the creepy factor of your daily commute.