LA Auto Show: Concept Cars, Virtual and Augmented Reality, and More Highlight This Year's Futuristic Event

The LA Auto Show is always a great opportunity to see what the traditional car manufacturers' new models look like without having to actually go to a dealership. But the Auto Show is perhaps more fun these days to see what transportation will look like in the not-so-distant future. Besides alternative fuel and electric cars, the most interesting displays share what the driver-less future looks like. 

A few interactive experiences at this year's show:

Amazon Gaming Lounge: Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May are bringing high-jinks and hot laps to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in The Grand Tour Game, an episodic racing game based on the hit Prime Original series, The Grand Tour. Created by Amazon Game Studios, The Grand Tour Gametransports players to exotic locations, where they’ll drive the world’s most interesting cars, and participate in the show’s outrageous challenges.

BYTON Test Ride: Premium smart electric vehicle brand BYTON will host free test rides on a closed course at the show. Attendees will be one of the first passengers to experience the M-Byte Concept SUV and its groundbreaking 49-inch Shared Experience Display, which goes into production at the end of 2019.

Free Test Drives: For the first time ever, attendees will have the opportunity to test drive Alfa Romeo models at the show. Visitors will also be able to test drive brand new vehicles from brands including Acura, Buick, Chrysler, Dodge, Fiat, Ford, Honda, Jaguar, Land Rover, Kia, Mazda, Subaru, Toyota and Volkswagen.

Slingshot Joyrides: Located in Pico Plaza, show-goers will be able to ride alongside a professional driver who will demonstrate the Slingshot’s fun driving capabilities by whirling around multiple tight corners within a custom-built, 18,000-square-foot course.

GTI Track Challenge (Volkswagen Exhibit - South Hall)

Toyota i-ROAD: The three-wheel personal electric vehicle equipped with revolutionary Active Lean technology that emulates the movements of a skier.

Toyota Fine-Comfort Ride: The new fuel cell vehicle concept envisions mobility in a low-carbon society, discharging no Co2 or substances of concern, while offering a generous cruising range and hydrogen refueling time of about three minutes.

The blogger kids try a "Fine Comfort Ride" VR experience.

Even BumbleBee makes an appearance.

Mustang Bullitt Shoot (Ford Exhibit - West Hall): Celebrate the 50th anniversary of "Bullitt" by staring in your own photo shoot and get a customized poster featuring you and the new Mustang Bullitt.

Adding to the kid-friendly nature of the auto show: Make your own Lego figurine at the Ford display.

Galpin's customs showroom is always worth a visit.

The Hyundai Racing Challenge in the South Hall Atrium offers up a chance to win an XBox, among other prizes.

The LA Auto Show continues through next Sunday, Dec. 9.

Petersen Auto Museum: A Disappointingly Sterile Makeover

They destroyed the soul of the Petersen Automotive Museum.

The completely redesigned museum re-opened at the end of 2015, but I finally got a chance to check it out last week. The exhibits are smart, crisp, pristine and interesting. But museum is no longer fun.

Ironically, the outside of the Petersen used to be sterile, short-changing the personality inside. Now, it's just the opposite: The museum's new facade is ambitious and bold... while the inside is surprisingly sterile.

The anal/Virgo in me loved the new, clean setup. It's well-organized, pristine and doesn't distract from the cars.

But the Angeleno enthusiast in me misses the old museum, with its re-creation of early 20th Century L.A. streetscapes. The old museum was also much more kid-friendly, and the new one is truly for the car enthusiast. It was perfect for my dad, who was visiting, but I imagine my kids would get antsy after awhile.

David Ulin shared my disappointment in the L.A. Times:

When my son Noah was little, the Petersen Automotive Museum — the car museum, we used to call it — was one of the touchstones of his world. In many ways, they grew up together; the Petersen opened on June 11, 1994, only a few months before Noah was born. Beginning when he was 1, we went to the museum around once a week, and we quickly developed a routine that lasted for a decade or so: Start with the immersive streetscape on the ground floor, with its trolley homage to Laurel and Hardy (Noah always spent time in the driver's seat), its Helms Bakery bread truck, its grocery store and auto showroom, then move on to the second floor, where there was a fully detailed hot rod shop and all those movie cars. Our visits would generally wrap up in the third floor playroom.

The new museum no longer plays by such irreverent rules. We visited, finally, a Sunday or so ago. As per the advice of the docent, we took the elevator to the third floor and worked our way down — exactly the opposite of how we used to navigate the space.

The new museum is themed by floor: History, Industry, Artistry. Cars and motorcycles are arrayed like, yes, museum pieces: static, sterile, separated from environment. This has long been my issue with museums, the notion that they strip art of context — or more accurately, impose a “museum” context of their own.

This new museum was efficient, even comprehensive, in its way, but it wasn’t much fun. It didn’t stir us to do much except keep moving, one display to the next. We stopped and admired the motorcycles (Noah is a rider), and the theme cars. We glanced at the production galleries and the performance vehicles. Yet there were few points of intersection, little for us to do but look.

Not only that, but the personality of the place, its connection to the city, was no longer clear. “It used to be a museum about Los Angeles,” Noah said once we reached the ground floor. “Now it’s just a museum.”

Exactly my thoughts. The Petersen used to be alive. Now it just feels like... a museum. (As for the outside, well, LA Times architectural critic Christopher Hawthorne notes that the museum "has embraced its inner Michael Bay."

That's not to say I didn't enjoy it. I'm always a sucker for history and the past, and checking out classic and historic automobiles is always interesting. Some shots from our afternoon at the new Petersen:



This 1900 Smith is the oldest surviving gasoline powered vehicle built in Los Angeles.



"Entourage" car



Batman!



OK, the kids would absolutely get a kick out of seeing the "Back to the Future" DeLorean



Outatime!



The infamous "Breaking Bad" Pontiac Aztec



Lightning McQueen





Art car





Low riders



Replica of the first practical car



David Hockney art car



Keith Haring art car



Silver cars



Original electric cars

L.A. Ad Town: Glendale's Downtown Gets Car Commercial Screen Time

Usually it's downtown Los Angeles that shows up in car commercials, so it was a nice surprise to see downtown Glendale in this spot. Shot right next to the Nestle headquarters in downtown Glendale, the building (and the mountains behind it) are unmistakable.


As you can tell, this is a spot for Honda.


Interestingly, the "134" is digitally removed from the sign here.


Check out the Verdugo mountains in the background.

L.A. Ad Town: Matthew McConaughey Loiters in Silver Lake

In his latest Lincoln commercial, Matthew McConaughey dines alone as it rains hard outside. It turns out he's eating at Blair's restaurant in Silver Lake, on Rowena next to Ivanhoe school. (Here's our 2004 Rate-A-Restaurant review of Blair's.)



Mood-effect rain outside Blair's in the Lincoln commercial.


Hey, it stopped raining in time to take a spin in the Lincoln! Allrightallrightallright!


The Blair's building recently underwent a renovation. Here's how it looked in September, via Yelp user Eric T. And below, a shot of how Blair's used to look, from a Google Maps pic taken in May: