Smile, Your Car Is Watching

We've all seen people who look like their pets, but what about people who look like their car?

With all the bad press about the auto industry lately, car manufacturers are going to great lengths to work some PR magic, literally building smiley faces right into the grills of their new designs. The hope is that consumers will be won over by cars that make them smile.

The Peapod (pictured above), a product of Chrysler's new Peapod Mobility division, is the poster child for this anthropomorphizing trend. The manufacturer started taking orders online for the $12,500 car on April 22nd, but deliveries are set to begin this fall.

“‘Charm' — I thought this was very important,” Peter Arnell, inventor and chief designer of the electric Peapod vehicle, tells the Associated Press. “‘Happiness' — this was part of the conversation too. I wanted to convey that the car was happy to be a car, to say transportation can be happy.”

Hmmm... Is that grin maybe a little smug? The Peapod is an electric vehicle and so, um, sensitive, that Arnell loathes to include it in any regular car category. In fact, he prefers to call it a "mobi," reports The New York Times -- something like an a mobile iPod. In fact, the Peapod is so unique that you won't be seeing it at any auto shows. Arnell tells The Times "They send the wrong message."

Other cars designs with similarly humanizing features include the Honda Fit, the Suzuki SX4 and the Toyota Prius.

“It's very purposeful to give our cars personality,” Moray Callum, executive director of Ford Americas Design, tells the AP. “It's something we're learning a lot about and doing a lot of ... and the front of the car, we call it the ‘face' of the car.”

Now, if only they could invent a car that could solve crimes, like KITT from Knight Rider.

Photo courtesy of Peapod Mobility.