As the automotive industry continues its relentless push toward self-driving and flying cars, it seems appropriate to ask future drivers what exactly they’re looking for.
Recently, GoCompare, a comparison shopping website that offers car insurance rates, asked ten children, ages 6 through 12, to sketch their sweet next-generation rides. The results aren’t just hilariously charming demonstrations of children’s imaginations run wild. They also speak to our evolving attitudes and aspirations for the future of transportation.
Many of the children, for example, included alternative fuel sources in their designs. Eleven-year-old Paula’s hover car is powered by the solar panel on its roof, whereas 11-year-old Joel’s “Mega Alset” runs on hydroelectric power.
Eleven-year-old Kyre’s “Hennessy K Cell GT” includes a generator that holds 11,000 volts of electricity and connects to the car’s two back wheels, which generate more electricity when the car is moving.
In contrast, six-year-old Isla imagines a car fueled by chocolate that can also get a boost of speed from shooting cupcakes out of its tailpipe.
Many of the designs also had flying or swimming capabilities. The wheels on the Hennessy K Cell GT can pivot into helicopter propellers to send the car into the air, for example, and the Mega Alset uses flexible glass windows to resist shattering at high pressures in the ocean’s depths.
For 12-year-old Charlotte, whose “Rainbow Convertable 3000” converts between both car and home, the design’s giant wings help it avoid traffic jams.
Kids may be kids, but their ideas resonate with the most pressing issues that face the automotive and transportation industry: They show an awareness of the need to reduce car pollution, to develop new modes of mobility, and to alleviate congestion. Though it will be several more years before these kids can join the engineering teams, their dream cars offer much-needed inspiration.