ZT:Next hot car is likely to be Xbox on wheels

How I wish my scion doubles as a PS2. Maybe that's what the black kid was asking whenever he sees me backing out from my garage.

 

News from USAToday

Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Next hot car is likely to be Xbox on wheels

 

Buzz among car tuners favors a vehicle that becomes a huge game when rolling.

Anita Lienert / Special to the Detroit News

 

Automotive product planners have been tracking the chatter on Web sites such as urbanracer.com following this month's Specialty Equipment Market Association show in Las Vegas.

The premier trade event helps them figure out where to take auto design in the future.

If the buzz among car tuners is any indication, your future ride may double as one huge Xbox or PlayStation.

That's because one of the specialty show cars was the Five Axis Scion ax Speedster.

"Driver and passenger experience the tightest twisters and the fastest straight-aways even with the transmission selector in 'Park,'?" urbanracer.com gushed.

The Speedster is basically one huge video game. A front hinged hood opens to reveal a screen to which a headrest-mounted Casio XJ-560 video projector beams the action from a Microsoft Xbox 360 video game system. The Xbox controllers are stashed in a custom headrest storage tray and two Samsung LCD monitors rise from a secret horizontal storage position from behind the headrests.

Toyota understands the potential of this groundbreaking idea. When you aren't driving, the steering wheel becomes a large piece of equipment that allows you play video games.

So will the Speedster ever see the light of day?

"If someone figured it out, it would be Scion," said Jim Farley, Toyota Division vice-president of marketing.

Toyota is also considering whether it should debut a stripped-out vehicle like the specialty show tic Tuner, a post-modern muscle car with a fixed glass roof and steel black wheels.

The specialty show continues to impact Ford as well, as it plans for the upcoming North American International Auto Show.

This year's 3d Carbon Fusion likely will end up at the Detroit auto show, said Ford's Jim Cain.

Ford will use its best 2005 specialty cars to drive traffic through its displays.