Toyota’s Fun-Vii Concept Car Connected and Configurable

Imagine: a tap on an app changes how your whole car looks, from the color to the graphical effects. Toyota’s Fun-Vii is working to bring that to you in the near future. The Vii stands for Vehicle, Interactive, Internet.

The exterior hull of this concept car is actually a huge display that can present graphics, images and even messages that can be easily viewed by onlookers. Of course, one of the quickest ideas that Toyota has come up to take advantage of this technology is displaying moving advertisement that can shift at will. Owners will however be also able to give warnings to aggressive drivers or careless pedestrians.

The graphical skin will also be included in the car’s interiors, and will create an enhanced functional interface that can be modified to suit different moods or atmospheres.

Aside from the gorgeous eye candy, the 3-seater Fun-Vii is also designed to be fully connected to the Internet, including a network of other compatible vehicles. This will bring up-to-date information to the driver such as traffic details, advisories, driving instructions and other important data. It will also provide digital entertainment to all passengers.

The inter-vehicle connectivity will potentially allow connected cars to be aware of their proximity to each other, and will be invaluable in situations where drivers have a blind spot, when a nearby car is pulling an emergency stop, or even to give warning on other road dangers. Maybe even one day, cars connected like so will be able to exchange insurance information and accident details in case of such instances.

Lastly, owners would be able to control their vehicles using a smartphone or tablet app. More details to come at the upcoming 2011 Tokyo Motor Show.