Odds and pods go on show

Loony tunes time is here again, thank goodness. The Los Angeles Auto Show is less than a month away but, already, the world's major manufacturers are vying with each other to produce futuristic concepts for the show that demonstrate how far out of the conventional car box they can think. And nothing in the car world is more entertaining.

Entrants for this year's Design Challenge were required to come up with concepts for cars as they might be in 2057.

Mazda has produced a driving suit which "non-invasively integrates the driver with the

vehicle" and "allows the driver to experience the road psycho-somatically." It's not called a coffin.

Honda has come up with the 14 (one to the power of four) - a solar-powered vehicle that carries its four passengers in separate and detachable mobile pods (below). All four can car-pool together on the motorway but when they get to the city, they break out their individual podmobile and drive to their