It is presented as a “concept car”, but the new project by Oki Sato, aka Nendo, for Japanese company DeNA – a video game and mobile e-commerce softwarehouse – has very little of a car. Designed for kindergardens and parks, Coen (which in Japanese means “park”) is made up of six mobile units, a small caravan of interactive and driverless vehicles, which together form an equipped and always-moving play space. And which, at first glance, resembles the rides of a microscopic amusement park more than the prototype of a 2.0 park of the near future.

The minimal and clean design, à la Nendo, is synthesized in a few rounded and vaguely zoomorphic lines. Sophisticated and highly computerized, the vehicles are equipped with different movements: “01.agaru”, vertical; “02.mawaru”, rotating; “03.yureru” lateral and unstable, like the parallel bars and the swing; “04.suberu” and “05.haneru” jumping; “06.yasumu”, paused. The wagons can also be recombined with each other, indulging the imagination of those who use them. For example, combining vehicle 01 with vehicle 04 creates a chute. The company’s goal is trying to create – from an early age – a new relationship between people and machines, understood as more than just a means of transport.

In the (way too optimistic) intentions of the designers, the mini cars could also be used as normal driverless vehicles to transport children for short journeys. The advantage, as we read in the introductory note, would be to always have full control of their position. A little bit ’little, considering that there are still many legitimate concerns about road safety, especially for unaccompanied minors.

We are light years away from the old pedal-powered cars that were in vogue in the 1970s in urban parks: Spartan and mechanical vehicles, however, they had the indisputable advantage of teaching children to move independently in space, to overtake other vehicles and dodge unforeseen dangers. In this case, however, interaction and play seem all too predictable, thanks to the skills of experienced programmers who have calculated every possibility a priori. A bit like the amusement park rides, where vehicles go around in circles on a platform accompanied by lights and sounds, but leaving little room for imagination.