Imagine the car of your dreams. A car that betters the world somehow. What do you see?
That’s the question Toyota asked kids around the world in their Toyota Dream Car Art Contest, a competition started in 2004. This year’s submissions are pretty unbelievable. According to Fast Company, there were more than 600,000 entries.
Among the finalists, you’ll find a submarine car with angelic wings/fins, a brain-shaped car that combats illness in the human body, and the genius elephant car that bottles water from the clouds. Who says a car is only for driving?
“We at Toyota believe that great ideas and great cars are born from the power to dream, and it is important to nurture this power of the next generation,” Masanao Tomozoe, president of Toyota Motor Sales and Marketing, told Fast Company. “…They offer such innovative and out of the box solutions.”
I wonder how adults would answer that very same question. Surely there’d be some creative ideas, but I suspect most of our designs would involve a practical solution to an everyday problem.
Maybe a Jetsons-like car that flies so you always get to work in time. Or a vehicle with cup holders to fit every type of coffee cup perfectly! That sort of thing.
But kids aren’t confined to the sensible, the logical, the realistic. Their imagination has no limits. That’s one reason the contest results are so inspiring. A car that cures illness, builds houses and spreads love as it drives? Why not?
So maybe when it comes to miracles, we need to take a hint from these drawings and think more like a kid, less like a grownup. Forget about the practical for a moment. Open up our eyes and imagine the possibilities of an impossible world.
Dare to seek wonder and miracles, even if it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense and requires an extra big leap of faith.
Who knows? The results could be amazing. Maybe even as brilliant as a giant blue elephant car.
You can check out more of the delightful dream car finalists here. And, just for fun, share your own dream car ideas below!
