Tech Beat: Javits Center revs up for annual Int'l Auto Show
Starting Friday, nearly a thousand of the coolest cars, trucks and other vehicles will be on display as the New York International Auto Show gets under way at the Jacob Javits Center. YNN's Adam Balkin filed the following report.
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The New York International Auto Show is perhaps the one place where visitors can gawk at what looks like a beat-up, ripped up car yet totally understand why the asking price is $26 million.
That car, by the way, is the original Shelby Cobra built by Carroll Shelby himself, unveiled at the West Side site exactly 50 years ago. Today though, what passes for futuristic is pretty much everywhere you look and lots of it. In fact, 60 cars will be shown that have never before been seen by the public. And as has been the trend for the last several years, many of them are greener.
"I think the industry has really said in the future we're really going to be seeing hybrid vehicles, fuel cell vehicles, electric vehicles, in the mix of cars that are available," said New York International Auto Show President Mark Schienberg.
While there's always talk about what will be the coolest vehicle at the show, this year's jaw dropper will likely be the flying car.
Called the Terrafugia Transition it was built by engineers who met while at MIT.
"It's driven just like any normal car and flown just like any normal airplane. It seats two people, take off and land at an airport, drive home and park in your garage. It takes less than a minute to convert from car to plane and we just demonstrate in the last few weeks, this is really real. It drives, it flies. So we're well on our way to being able to do the first customer delivery within the next year," said Anna Dietrich of Terrafugia.
Meanwhile, developers of the MV-1 say it's the first American made, factory-produced, wheelchair accessible vehicle. That means it was made that way from the ground up, not retrofit to accommodate a wheelchair like most others are.
"Ours comes out of the factory with a ramp built into the floor of the vehicle. It takes about six seconds to deploy and six seconds to retract," said Steven Schneir of MV-1.
The other difference between the MV-1 and other wheelchair accessible vehicles: The person in the wheelchair actually gets to sit shotgun up front.
The New York International Auto Show officially opens Friday and runs through April 15.
For more information, visit autoshowny.com.