Tokyo Moter Show

Style-D Piana

This, ladies and gents, fans and haters, is Japan’s answer to the legendary BMW Isetta bubble car.

It’s called the Piana (which is the instrument played by Cockney entertainers, we think) and is the work of Style-D, a company set up by two former Toyota designers.

About the same size as a Fiat 500, it’s bigger than the traditional microcar. But it apes the Isetta’s trademark front opening door.

This, according to the press release, “gives you peace of mind to get in and out when the raining day.” Phew.

Apparently you can customise the 400kg bubble car with a squished Porsche 911 body, and even get a surfboard rack fitted to the back.

Four-wheel-drive is currently in development. Style-D claims the Piana charges in five minutes (really) and has a 75-mile range.

Tokyo Motr Show

Toyoda Gosei Flesby

Meet Flesby. Flesby is a four-wheeled beanbag that aims to make the process of knocking over a pedestrian the most pleasant accident possible for all involved.

Flesby uses an onboard computer and an array of sensors to anticipate an impending collision. If he/she/it suspects a shunt is imminent, the whole chassis inflates into a rolling airbag.

Having head-butted and given it a kick to try it out, we reckon being hit by Flesby would be the same as being run over by a six foot, four-wheeled travel pillow.

The driver operates Flesby via two joysticks, so arcade fans should be pretty handy behind the wheel.

But the futuristic interior also senses the driver’s posture and mood, and will adjust the lighting, music, and even the smell inside the cockpit to soothe the occupants. Useful if you’ve just run someone over.

Tokyo Moter Show

Mazda New 

Mazda stayed loyal to rotary by unveiling the slinky RX-Vision, Nissan terrified us with the future of autonomous driving, and Toyota showed off a baby AMG GT.

But there was another side to the Tokyo motor show, one brought to you by the letters W, T and F.

The Tokyo motor show has long been famed for its weird and wacky concepts, so we spent a day trawling the show floor to see what was out there.

Our haul was impressive, and we’ve since worked our way through the muddied, hilarious and straight-up confusing Japanese press literature to fathom what’s they’re all about.

So fasten your lap belts and click through to see the weirdest stuff Japan has to offer.