All eyes are on the UAE’s Hope probe after it successfully entered Mars's orbit, but when a future mission to one of our neighbouring planets takes place, you may see a Hyundai. The South Korean carmaker has unveiled a concept vehicle, designed to tackle the toughest terrain imaginable – on Earth and beyond. They’re calling it the Tiger, which stands for Transforming Intelligent Ground Excursion Robot. Designed to be unscrewed, it will operate either as a four-wheel drive vehicle or four-legged walking machine. The Tiger’s features include a leg-and-wheel locomotion system, 360-degree directional control, and a range of sensors for remote observation. It has also been created with the ability to connect to unmanned aerial vehicles, like drones, which can charge and deliver the Tiger to the most inaccessible locations. A load bay housed within its body means the Tiger can carry goods for delivery, or be deployed to deliver aid packages in emergency situations. Its ability to swap between legs and wheels enables it to tackle a range of extreme situations while keeping its payload more secure than would be possible on a typical ground vehicle. Many carmakers develop concept vehicles that never see the light of day, but Hyundai hopes its latest creation will find a use as a mobile scientific exploration platform, operating in extreme, remote locations. The Tiger shares many characteristics with the Elevate, Hyundai's other leg-wheel transforming vehicle, but while the Elevate has been specifically designed to carry passengers, the Tiger has been specifically designed not to. Like its earlier sibling, the vehicle is being developed by Hyundai Motor Group’s New Horizons Studio in partnership with Autodesk, an engineering software company, and concept design agency Sundberg-Ferar.
