Car design should go back to fundamentals

In regard to Ian Silverstein’s commendation of The Moving Object Exhibition at the Royal College of Art (Letters, DW 10 September), what struck me was how little the concept of a practical transport vehicle has changed. In almost a century of worldwide vehicle design the preconceived notion of what we need to get by as a means of transport is still a petrol-driven four-wheeled vehicle, approximately 4×1.5m in area size.

But if we look at how much the world has changed since the first cars came into production with pollution and finite natural resources, we all know that the modern car is one of the main culprits.

So, how meaningless does the science of aesthetics for designing the packaging of a vehicle become when what’s in the packaging is as ugly as sin?

Michael Dozier

Mike1@newscientist.net