Anyone who’s ever ridden to a Grateful Dead show in a Volkswagen microbus that’s incapable of going faster than 35 miles an hour will surely appreciate the news that the old favorite is getting a high-tech upgrade. The VW microbus, the iconic hippie vehicle known for lasting for decades but breaking down constantly, is being re-released as an all-electric, sort-of self-driving, supermodern vehicle called the I.D. Buzz.
Wait, they couldn’t have called it the“Microbuzz”? Because that would have been a thousand times more clever.
The I.D. Buzz made it’s debut last weekend at the Concours d’Elegance in Pebble Beach, the annual car show popular among wealthy middle-aged men and their sex worker companions. The electric vehicle won’t be available until 2022, and it’s not a completely self-driving autonomous car. It’s a Level 3 autonomous car, which I had to Google to discover that this is defined as the driver still having to sit in the driver’s seat to monitor things and intervene if necessary.
Prototypes of the bus have spotted around San Francisco this week by sharp-eyed Redditors, Instagrammers, and Imgurers.
Do you think this new electric microbus sounds really cool? Allow us to completely demolish that sentiment by showing you this insufferable advertisement for the goddamned thing, wherein a man-bunned lumbersexual and his girlfriend who is hot enough that she should know better ride around our fair city while doing stuff white people like such as surfing, using iPads, and duckfacing for selfies.
Still, there are some really cool touches on this new microbus. The light-up LED detailing on the exterior is just sublime. The adjustable interior seating arrangement looks completely kick-ass. And any car that does not use gasoline is obviously a commendable step in the right direction.
But the sleek, new electric VW microbus still won’t be out for another five years. So you have plenty of time to save up your $80,000 or so and grow out your man bun.
