We think the design team behind Smart's entry for the LA Design Challenge needs to get out more. Not only does its 'movie' carry the rather top-shelf title
Annie get the Grannies!, but it also envisions a future where one of the major problems affecting people is a severe lack of parking spaces. Anybody who lives in [insert name of pretty much any city here] knows full well that parking space wars are unfortunately a thing of the present and not preserved for the future.
Despite the name Smart's entry is not a Gilf-hunter movie (we do not know what such a thing is) but instead follows the adventures of news reporter, Annie Angle, on her journey to track down some missing Granny Robots. Annie uses the strengths of her Smart 341 Parkour to accomplish this mission. At first glance the micro-sized city-car is not actually that far removed from the Smart car we have today, even if its solution to parking goes one step further than the famed head-on to the kerb of the modern Smart. As the name suggests, the 341 Parkour has a trick up its sleeve.
In addition to normal driving mode the Parkour can also retract its wheels and deploy either the impulse pads that allow it to hover high above the city streets or a set of vacuum cups that give it the ability to run up the walls of skyscrapers; ideal for a reporter looking for a new angle...
Paul Healy - 6 Nov 2011