Attend Business Meetings While Levitating Around on the Renault Contraste

But some designers still want the feel of a car no matter what our future holds. Honestly, it will probably become a luxury to own a car that still includes the prehistoric wheel, much how it is today to own a classic Stang.

For Minsub Han of Paris, France, a future where humans can have the best of both worlds is his vision of a balanced lifestyle. Since he is an exterior designer at Renault, it makes sense that his work also includes the Renault logo.

That being said, this concept, the Renault Contraste, is meant for our future cities of 2050. Know this, the design we see includes two functions, one for day driving and one for night driving, and each one comes with different capabilities.

So now that we understand a bit about what sort of functions we can find on the car, we have to create a scenario. Our future will inevitably become so crowded at street level that we will eventually have to expand toward the sky. The beginning of this movement is already being seen with air taxis and VTOLs. But this future will still include a network of highways, although a bit different than what we imagine.

In Han’s future, every point of interest is interconnected by aerial highways like those found in the Mazda Koshi future, but without a rail system. So how do we move around? Are you ready for this? Cue holy sounds in the background... Levitation, folks.

That’s right. The main propulsion system for this concept is levitation. Instead of wheels, this idea uses antigravity engines where we would normally find wheels. But, because old habits die hard, during the day, this vehicle does maneuver on a sort of visible road, but still within the network of aerial highways.

This is also where the modular functions come in. During day driving, the vehicle is closed, and the body resembles that of classic car. But during night driving, the vehicle elongates itself to expose the interior to the outside world. The front and back wheel sections extend to allow passengers to enjoy the cool night air or simply see the sights.

At night is also the moment when the Contraste does show off her true power. During night driving, the aerial highway allows its second level of mobility to be used, that of full levitation. To understand how it looks and works, check out the gallery. It’s a principle similar to the one used by maglev trains.

We can see the highways are built with gates. Well, each gate projects the energy needed to propel the car forward, backward, or just stop it in its place. But for that energy to work on the car, the Contraste also includes special materials on the extendable components, in order to react properly. Don’t ask us what though, I'm not so sure even Mr. Han knows.

As for the interior of this idea, it’s just as high tech as the outside. Here we can see a large internal space that houses overly large seats. Actually, one of the ideas for the interior is to act as a conference hall. In case you do have to attend a meeting, don’t bother about going anywhere. That meeting can take place in each car via holographic projections of each member in the meeting.

This idea seemed so cool at the time that it was conceived, that there’s even a scale model of this thing floating around somewhere around the world. But we just don’t have that highway yet. Shucks.