Volkswagen/Audi Design Center California

Designers: Patrick Faulwetter, Daniel Simon, Ian Hilton

Using nanotechnology, the Nanospyder could be assembled, disassembled and reassembled on a microscopic level. To create the car, billions of tiny nano-machines, each no more than a half-millimeter in diameter, would attach themselves to one another in a large tank.

With this technique, engineers could vary the density of the vehicle's frame to create impact-absorbing crumple zones as needed. Sensors would forewarn of an impending collision, enabling the nano-machines to strengthen or weaken their bonds in different areas, creating soft spots in the frame that would bend to absorb the impact.