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Concept cars show new design, technology

CNET Car Tech posts photos of concept cars from the 2010 Geneva auto show.

Wayne Cunningham Managing Editor / Roadshow
Wayne Cunningham reviews cars and writes about automotive technology for CNET's Roadshow. Prior to the automotive beat, he covered spyware, Web building technologies, and computer hardware. He began covering technology and the Web in 1994 as an editor of The Net magazine.
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Wayne Cunningham

Citroen Survolt
The Citroen Survolt exhibits design language straight out of a hallucination. Wayne Cunningham/CNET

Pure concept cars at the Geneva auto show (photos)

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GENEVA--The financial woes of the last few years caused automakers to scale back on outlandish concepts, using their design resources for more immediate and practical work. But the 2010 Geneva auto show sees the return of at least a few interesting concepts.

Some are so heavily design-oriented that they don't resemble anything in the automaker's current stable, and probably never will. Features like touch screens running along the entire dashboard and cameras for side-view mirrors may only show up when we get flying cars.

Others do presage technologies slated for production cars. Most of these concepts are specified to run on some sort of hybrid power train, and two of those hybrid power trains will find their way into production cars within in the next two years.

The wildest technology comes from Mercedes-Benz. Called Traffic Jam Assist, this feature will accelerate, brake, and steer the car under 25 mph.

Check out the concept cars of the 2010 Geneva auto show.