Wacky World of Rubber: Floating ideas for the future of mobility

The most ambitious visions for the future automobile often take to the skies.

Goodyear, for instance, recently unveiled Aero, a concept tire designed to double as a propeller and lift a futuristic car off the ground, carrying it to its destination quickly.

But what if the true future of mobility is more familiar?

Our sister publication, Automotive News, reported recently that one Japanese-based start-up may have a different kind of vision for the future of mobility: The Fomm One.

According to the Automotive News story, Hideo Tsurumaki, CEO of Fomm Corp., told The Times of London, that he designed the car in the aftermath of the 2011 tsunami that killed more than 18,000 people in Japan, including many who were stuck in traffic. His goal, he said, was to design a vehicle for new global climate reality, one that could help to save lives when natural disasters arise.

The London-based newspaper noted that, within the last three months, at least 30 people have died in their cars during typhoons.

The Fomm One, slated to go on sale in Japan next spring, is a semiamphibious four-seater with turbine blades in its wheels that allow it to move 2 mph in water. It has a 100-mile battery range and a top speed on dry roads of 50 mph.

It is expected to cost about $20,300, and the company said it has gotten about 1,600 orders in Thailand, which often experiences widespread flooding.

Fomm Corp, though, is far from the first to envision a vehicle that runs as well in water as it does on dry roads.

In fact, one German car maker did just that, more than 50 years ago.

And President Lyndon B. Johnson could have proved it.

In 2014, Business Insider revisited the former president's infamous amphibious car, the Amphicar. It was the only amphibious vehicle that was ever mass-produced, according to the National Park Service, which notes that almost 3,900 Amphicars were built in Germany between 1961 and 1968. They came in four colors: Beach White, Regatta Red, Fjord Green (Aqua), and Lagoon Blue—the color Johnson owned.

Johnson kept the car at his private ranch in Texas and delighted in driving guests around in it. On the road, the vehicle looked like any other, so they had no reason to suspect the prank that Johnson loved to pull.

"It involved," Business Insider reporter Corey Adwar wrote, "barrelling the vehicle down a hill into a lake and exclaiming to his passengers that the brakes had malfunctioned, while they had no idea the car was designed to float in water."

Perhaps the best amphibious cars, though, are those that have failed. Hilariously and miserably.

Enter Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond, the co-presenters of BBC's "Top Gear" and the episode in which they challenged each other to build and race aquacars across the lake.

Clearly, they did not take the design advice of Phil Swift.

The race to the finish line aboard the poorly designed amphibious cars is, easily, one of the best things I have found on YouTube in recent months.

It is my holiday gift to you.

Erin Pustay Beaven is the online content editor for Rubber & Plastics News. She is an appreciator of life's littlest treasures, a reader of great books and supporter of the Green Bay Packers and Cleveland Indians. Erin is an advocate for libraries, arts education and PBS. Follow her on Twitter at @EBeavenCrain.