Jason Moses
January 28, 2013 Go-to mecha designer and animator Shoji Kawamori might be busy serving as chief director of AKB0048 right now, but he’s never too busy to draw some robots. Transforming ones that live in your car and make sure you don’t get in an accident. Those kinds.
Japanese automaker Subaru announced on the 19th that they commissioned Kawamori to take their EyeSight camera-based driver-assist technology (which will actually be making its first appearance on American shores this year, it turns out), and reimagine it as a fictional transforming robot straight out of Macross. Because why the heck not?
Designed to prevent road accidents, EyeSight uses cameras mounted behind a car’s rearview mirror to monitor the road and apply brakes if necessary to avoid collision. It is also, thanks to Kawamori, a bipedal robot that can undergo a complete transformation into a helicopter, defeating its entire purpose.
Kawamori stated in an included making-of article that he initially chose to have the robot transform (shockingly) into an airplane, but opted to go with the helicopter design in order to lend it a warmer, more accessible appeal.
Source: Anime Anime Japan
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