Anthropomorphic Automobiles
June 5th 2006 Posted at General
1 Comment 
In college, there was much talk about how interpreting animal actions in terms of human emotions is not good science. It seems like cars can express emotion in how they interact with your car while driving. For instance, if you are driving along a single lane road and stop at a stop light and someone pulls into the turning lane and waits for the light to change, hoping to gun ahead of you to take the lead, the offending car certainly seems to being express a personality or emotion. Besides being irritating and arrogant, there are feelings of impatience, self-centeredness, and judgment.
We know that cars don’t have emotions, but why does it seem like it while driving? Perhaps emotions are only internal to you. If I think of all the times I have read someone’s emotions based on their actions and then think about how it seems that cars can have emotions, it makes me think that I probably read too much into things.
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You’re partially right, but there’s no question that automakers do everything in their power to give cars personality, and the people who buy them are going to buy a car that exhibits the same personality as them.
Have you seen the 2009 Ferrari California? I think some designers have been watching Pixar’s movie “Cars” a little too much.
Tough cars often have a grill that almost looks like a grimace, while family oriented cars often have the grill removed almost entirely (read: “my kids have beat me into silence”, or “my wonderful children are quiet and behaved.”). And lately have you noticed that with the clear lenses headlights look even more like eyes. Is it just a coincidence that as more cars and car design come from Asia the headlights shapes have also started looking more exotic.