Volkswagen I.D. concept car gets its own sci-fi short

The Volkswagen I.D. concept car made a splash at the Paris Motor Show a few days ago, but in addition to real world images of the sleek automobile, the company also released a sci-fi-style short featuring the vehicle in action.

At the beginning of the video, a woman meets the self-driving car in front of her building and it dutifully opens its door for her. Clothed in Mad Max-light fare, the woman then takes the wheel and hits the road, framed by the spacecraft-like LEDs framing the car's chassis. Later, once she's well underway, she hits the steering wheel logo, which causes the steering wheel to recede into the dashboard as the car takes over the driving, allowing her to sit back and read the messages being displayed on her windshield. It's an increasingly familiar vision of our automotive future shown in yet another well-designed concept car video. But the difference here is that, as Uber and Google are proving, videos like these are becoming less concept demo and more preview teaser. Let's hope the Volkswagen I.D., which is slated to hit the road in 2020 (just four years from now!) avoids pitfalls like the company's Dieselgate scandal and instead lives up to the ideal future portrayed in this stunning new video.