VIERIA: Michelin Design Challenge Concept Car Cleans Polluted Air

Imagine a <a title="Inhabitat: car" href="http://inhabitat.com/index.php?s=car" target="_blank">car</a> that not only transforms its shape to navigate different kinds of traffic but also filters and purifies polluted city air. That's the concept that two students at Kyung-won University in South Korea, Gunwoong Kim &amp; Suji Kim, have come up with. They call it the <a title="Michelin Challenge Design VIERIA concept car" href="http://www.michelinchallengedesign.com/MCD_2011/mcd_2011_gallery_d09.php" target="_blank">VIERIA</a>. The VIERIA's wheels are mounted on scissor-shaped legs that can be moved to various configurations that work best in the <a title="Inhabitat: city" href="http://inhabitat.com/index.php?s=city" target="_blank">city</a> or on the <a title="Inhabitat: highway" href="http://inhabitat.com/index.php?s=highway" target="_blank">highway</a>, and its air intake draws polluted city air into the vehicle, where it is purified before being pushed out the tailpipe.

The VIERIA can be configured into several different positions that allow it to quickly navigate city traffic or cruise for longer distances on the highway by moving the wheels in or out.

The VIERIA was designed by two South Korean students, Gunwoong Kim and Suji Kim.

The slim silhouette of the VIERIA concept seems to use tandem seating, in which the driver sits directly in front of a single passenger.

Could a car really act as a mobile air filter, purifying the air rather than polluting it? The tech isn't here yet, but theoretically it's possible.

Here is the VIERIA in its compact city car configuration, wheels pulled in.

In this photo, the VIERIA's scissor legs have repositioned the wheels for optimal highway cruising.