Concept cars consign Clarkson to the dustbin of history

Imagine a future in which cars might be as compelling a subject for educated conversation as politics or the arts. Imagine discussing cars in terms of their social significance and their utilitarian merit with no mention of brake horse power or valve clearances, no adolescent Top Gear mouthing-off over acceleration or top speeds, no retarded slavering about 'pulling power'.

Such appealing prospects are suggested by 'Japan Car - Designs for the Crowded Globe', an exhibition opening on Saturday November 29 at the Science Museum in South Kensington, London.

Among the leading exhibits at the show are cars like Nissan's Pivo and Toyota's iQ which are so far removed from the 20th century's clapped-out preoccupations over automobiles (power, performance, glamour, status and sex) that they might cause Jeremy Clarkson to burst his jeans with puffed-up indignation.

Or, in the words of Professor Andrew Nahum, principal curator at the Science Museum, "these cars are about information technology - not drive-train technology".

A robot head keeps its eyes on the driver and picks up moods and fallibilities

The electrically powered Nissan Pivo is a rotating pod. It can be driven head-first into a parking space (leaving the car at a right-angle to the pavement) and then, when the driver returns and wishes to drive away, the pod can swivel to point the other way, allowing the car to exit the space head-first.

The interior of the pod also includes a robot head which keeps its eyes on the human face of the driver and picks up dangerous moods and fallibilities. If you are feeling over-aggressive or emotionally distracted, the robot head will adopt a facial expression of sadness and anxiety which kindly asks: "Do you really think you should be driving in this condition?" It can also tell if you are stewing with drink.

The Pivo is a concept years away from production, if it ever goes on sale; but Toyota's iQ is just about to enter the showrooms exactly as it can be seen at the Science Museum.

This - the world's smallest four-seater at fractionally under three metres in length - is the most revolutionary midget urban car to appear since the Smart, which it blows away into the redundancy of the last century. The iQ is not only a brilliant car in which to transport three adults and a child in the city (where it will be exempt from congestion charging and also VED or road tax); it is also capable of long motorway journeys in as much comfort and at the same speed as a big car.

If you want to drive on motorways, you will be controlled by a central intelligence

The exhibition advances the possibility that, both in cities and on motorways in the future, such cars will be directed and controlled by a central intelligence - like an all-powerful air-traffic control - which regulates their speed and cannot be countermanded when it diverts them away from congestion or accidents.

If you drive to Wales or Scotland, you might get away from that artificial all-seeing brain but, if you want to return to the city on the motorways, you must submit to the place and the pace it designates. "That might be the price we have to pay for independent transport," says Andrew Nahum. "It may not be pleasant but it might be unavoidable."

Japanese thinking on these questions seems to be far in advance of the rest of the world but the exhibition reminds us that the culture of that country has always been good at adapting nature into exquisite miniature art forms. One of the country's leading Bonsai scholars - a 'living treasure' in his own right - has curated the miniature copse of Bonsai trees (some of them 200 years old) which adorn Japan Car.