Children have strong influence on their parents' car-buying decisions these days, a phenomenon that helped to inspire Johnson's partnership with Lego, which conducted its own Kids'n'Cars study of children's behavior and the nature of play. Lego's interest is to expand its business beyond plastic blocks, a process already begun with its electronic toys. The InMotion interior is divided into areas for adults and children. The carpeting up front gives way in the back to washable rubberlike flooring - ready for spilled apple juice and dropped ice cream cones. The InMotion car includes an electronic table called the Go Pad for Kids, which combines a DVD player with a digital camera and an Internet connection.
Youngsters can download games and send electronic postcards of scenes snapped along the way.
Adults get Comfort Massage seats embedded with vibrating motors. The other Johnson Controls concept car, the Kion, began with the concept of designing the interior as a sort of rolling living room - an old idea, but one reinvented here with high technology. The dashboard is now a credenza, full of drawerlike storage. The seats are chairs, riding on three legs each. The doors open from the center, barn style, providing easier access and a feeling of space.