IT'S A gadget anyone stuck in yet another traffic jam would give their eye-teeth to own. The Renault Kwid concept, a compact car unveiled this week at the Delhi motor show, has a drone-like device that can fly above it and beam back images of the road ahead, The Sunday Times reports.
The Flying Companion looks like a miniature helicopter and has three rotors. It can be operated in automatic mode using a pre-programmed flying sequence and GPS guidance, or manually via a control pad inside the car. Besides monitoring the traffic situation, it could spot obstacles ahead and, if you're in a creative frame of mind, take landscape pictures.
“It’s an amazing feature and the very first time we can drive on earth with an eye in the sky,” said Serge Mouangue, innovative cooperative laboratory manager at Renault.
But the Kwid concept’s radical ideas don’t stop there. The interior of the electrically powered car, which has scissor doors and blends beach-buggy looks with chunky SUV styling, is inspired by a bird’s nest, with seat and fascia coverings resembling hastily arranged twigs. It's certainly one way of explaining a lack of design rigour to the boss.