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From sewing machines to guns, televisions to aircraft, these are the companies that made other products before branching out into cars.
While some have gone on to become household names, others have disappeared into obscurity. Read on to see the cars that companies like Sony, Siemens and even Kalashnikov have built.
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Sony Vision-S
In a bold and rather surprising move at the 2020 CES show, Sony wheeled out a very convincing Tesla rival. Called the Vision-S, this electric prototype looked near-enough road ready, though Sony claims it has no plans to bring it to fruition.
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Instead, the Vision-S is a very convincing piece of theatre through which the company can show its prowess in in-car technology. That includes 33 safety sensors that can identify people and objects inside and outside the car, sophisticated in-car entertainment with immersive audio, speakers built into each seat for personalised listening experiences and a large panoramic screen.
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Steinway
In 1888, New York piano maker William Steinway established the Daimler Motor Company in New York, licensing the name of Gottlieb Daimler. So just three years after the birth of the car as we know it, Daimler became the first European car company in America. Steinway died in 1896 before a car could be built, and his heirs sold their shares in Daimler to General Electric.
It was not until 1904 that the first ‘American Mercedes’ was finally built, a version of the Mercedes 45 hp, and examples were built up to 1907.
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Outspan MINI
Outspan is a South African orange company. In the early 1970s it commissioned the Brian Thwaites company in Sussex (south England) to build a promotional car for Europe. Based on the highly-hackable Mini, a very lifelike orange body, complete with orange peel texture, was fitted over the Mini’s chassis. Of six cars built, three are still known to exist.
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We had a drive in one in 2019. “The cabin ambience is of a teenage fantasy bedroom circa 1973... none of the windows open, the temperature within soon turning as hot as a harvest-ripening sun.
It’s a surprise to discover that the Orange corners with the quicksilver zest of a standard Mini… With more ambitious pace – and 30-40mph feels ambitious in a globe with the head room to support top-hats – the Orange succumbs to corkscrew pitching that could quickly turn into a headline-grabbing incident.”
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Boeing car
In 2019, Boeing and Porsche announced they were teaming up to develop an electric flying car concept. And this is it. Well, an early indication of what the as-yet-unnamed flying car might look like anyway.
Neither company has given any indication of when this might ‘take off’, but in 2018 research by Porsche suggested that the urban air mobility market could start to gain traction as soon as 2025.
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Voisin C5
Before starting a car company, Gabriel Voisin (1880-1973) was better known for his aviation endeavours. The French aviation pioneer built the first manned aeroplane capable of powered flight and his company, Avions Voisin, was the first mass producer of aircraft in the world.
The end of World War One saw a dramatic drop in demand for aeroplanes, so Voisin began experimenting with powered bicycles and then a two-seater car that he developed based on a design by André Citroën. The result was the M1 in 1919. The car pictured, the C5, was produced between 1923 and 1928 and had a top speed of 78mph. His cars were some of the most luxurious in the world in their day, and are highly prized now; one ultra rare model – a C25 Aérodyne – was sold at auction in 2013 for $1.9 million.
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Apple iCar
Dubbed the Apple iCar, the tech giant had bold plans back in 2016 to revolutionise personal mobility – and to do for cars what it’s done for phones. Apple never showed an actual car, and the project was shrouded in mystery. Then, in 2019, Apple culled its ‘Project Titan’ team with the company saying it was switching its focus to autonomous systems rather than a car itself.
Since 2017, it has been testing a fleet of Lexus RX450h with self-driving tech on the streets of Cupertino, near its headquarters.
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Siemens Elektrische Viktoria
Made famous for its telegraph-like invention of the 1840s and known today for its consumer goods, trains, medical equipment and IT tech, Siemens waded into unknown waters in 1905 by building an electric car. The Elektrische Viktoria had a top speed of 19mph and a range of about 60km (37 miles). It was available in three body styles: a four-seat convertible, a pickup and a van. Only about 50 models were sold.
In 2010, Siemens built a working replica based on early sketches but later that year the replica was involved in an accident in Germany and the leader of the project was killed.
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Roborace powered by Nvidia
This is the Roborace driverless racing car, powered by US graphics processor giant Nvdia. Each Roborace consists of 10 teams running identical cars powered by Nvdia’s Drive PX2 chip. Rather than a battle of skill and bravery, it’s a competition of software supremacy.
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Google Firefly
Waymo is Google’s automotive offshoot and has been designing driverless systems since 2009. Its most famous product to date has been the Firefly, the cute bug-shaped autonomous pods without a steering wheel or pedals.
They were a regular sight on the roads around Google’s Mountain View home, but the car was canned in 2017. Waymo will continue to develop autonomous tech, but use other companies’ cars as hosts.
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Michelin PLR
Back in the 70s, Michelin built a prototype car for tyre testing. Based on the Citroën DS, and powered by two Chevrolet big block engines, its most notable feature was its 10-wheel design. Nicknamed ‘the centipede’, the PLR was the size of a truck and weighed 20944 lb (9500kg). It carried a lorry tire in the middle which it tested at speeds of up to 100mph.
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Grumman LLV
If you live in the USA, there’s a good chance your mail arrived in one of these today. The Grumman LLV is a light transport truck used by the United States Postal Service. Built in the 90s, and with more than 140,000 made, the LLV is still in service today. It was built by military and civilian aircraft producer Grumman - perhaps most famous for making the F-14 Tomcat fighter - which in 1994 merged with Northrop.
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Samsung Digital Cockpit
Samsung is another tech giant getting in on the automotive action. At the CES show in 2020, it presented its Digital Cockpit – and used a pretty convincing prototype car to show it. Within the four-seat convertible’s cabin which it built with subsidiary Harman, Samsung showcased its future vision of in-car entertainment and safety.
Samsung’s Digital Cockpit uses 5G to link features inside and outside the car to give drivers and passengers a more connected experience. Inside, there are eight displays, eight cameras and the car can share information with other cars by displaying messages on its rear exterior display.
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Samsung XM3 Inspire
The digital cockpit concept wasn’t Samsung’s first car project. In 2019 it unveiled the XM3 Inspire concept in a partnership with Renault. The XM3 is a rebadged version of the Renault Arkana SUV that was introduced in 2018.
The XM3 has a swooping rear for a sportier look. It’s expected to go into production this year in South Korea.