Video: The exploration truck that could take you anywhere on Earth

“So often in school it’s, ‘You have to stop being a dreamer, you have to just learn to be practical and accept the world.’ This is all bullshit,” explains designer Bran Ferren. And Ferren should know. He’s one of the designers behind the famous Imaginarium at Disney World and now leads a creative brain trust known as Applied Minds in which the best and brightest designers and engineers pool their vast knowledge base into – hopefully – making that next giant technological leap.

To look at the future of vehicles which have been built with a larger purpose than heading to the shops for groceries, journalist Ben Ferguson heads to Burbank, LA to check out Ferren’s latest project: creating a truck which can withstand any and all terrains.

The documentary is the final of a three-part Motherboard travel series made possible by KAYAK.co.uk, the innovative travel tool that helps you plan, book and manage your trips. It explores cutting edge projects that give us an idea of how technology will reshape our traveling experience in the years to come.

In this video, we get to see a working prototype of the Kiravan – an oversized beast of the road which has been designed with the aim of it being able to withstand all terrain. Ferren’s mammoth creation also speaks of innovations in technology that suggest we’re on the cusp of an era where houses, flats, bungalows and apartments all come with giant wheels. Ferguson test drives the vehicle and discovers that it has still got some way to go before it’s ready for the road, but the real discovery here is that there are people with their eyes on the future, anticipating trends and building products for a world that isn’t quite here yet.

But that’s OK, because Ferren has never let anything come between him and his vision. “Consensus thinking is poison to design, all you do is drive to mediocrity,” Ferren explains. “[I would rather] take the chance of a complete failure and a disaster than do something that’s kind of OK. You can actually make contributions to the world by specifically working on the things that you have passion for, taking those dreams, dreaming more and pushing in ways that “sensible people” would never do.”

Check out episode one, Japan’s Android Hotel and episode two, Space Tourism on Huck.

---