We promise those aren't Hot Wheels surrounded by really tiny buildings.
That's the home of Autobahn Motors in Singapore, where you can stand in a building across the street and pick a luxury car from a hollowed-out complex. The process of buying a two-ton automobile from a skyscraper-sized vending machine is fairly simple: You take a closer look at the cars on a tablet computer and punch in which ones you want to order, because let's face it, nobody gets just one thing out of a vending machine. The car then pops out of its slot and gets delivered down to you through an automated "fishbone" delivery system. Couldn't be easier, if you're the type of person that puts as much thought into buying a car as the rest of us do in getting an afternoon snack.
The guy behind this idea, Gary Hong, needed a way to both stand out from other luxury car dealers (because those are all the same, apparently) and make use of limited land offerings in Singapore. So rather than spend a lot of money on a flashy showroom, Autobahn Motors instead went with buying an apartment block and punched out its sides. All this so that when one rich guy asks another rich guy where he got his fancy car, he can casually say, "Oh, you know, a vending machine in Singapore."
230 Comments