Hyundai’s annual R&D IDEA Festival in Korea is a fertile ground for unusual concepts, with the competition being open exclusively to engineers from within the company.

Aimed at uncovering new ideas in future mobility, the fifth edition of the IDEA Festival featured some bold propositions. Held on October 7 under the theme “Making A Better Future” at Hyundai Motor’s Namyang Technology Research Center in Korea, the contest featured a total of 10 projects on which teams worked for more than four months.

Of the 10 concepts ranging from wearable devices to new forms of mobility prototypes, four were declared winners, with the teams behind them having the chance to see their creations exhibited at motor shows worldwide and at other internal events.

The four winning concepts are called Carry U, Length and Width, Golden Time Rescue and Hyundai Car-Meleon. The Carry U is a luggage carrier that transforms into a scooter-like mobile vehicle to cover short distances during travel – at the airport, for example.

Length and Width is probably the strangest of all projects, with the vehicle featuring a variable shape – it can fold vertically or horizontally to move through narrow areas.

As its name suggests, Golden Time Rescue is a vehicle designed to be used for rescue missions in any type of terrain conditions, with its key feature being the ability to change the structure of its tires.

Finally, the Hyundai Car-Meleon is probably the ugliest of all concepts, but that’s because it is designed to morph into three types of vehicles: a sedan, an RV, or truck.

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