The Grand Prix winner of the 2018 Lexus Design Award has been announced: Testing Hypotheticals by Christopher Woebken & Elliott P. Montgomery was chosen from a record 1319 entries from 68 countries.

The theme of 2018 is “CO-“, a Latin prefix meaning with or together. Testing Hypotheticals explored the concept by imagining a test site that explores speculative relationships between society, technology and the environment.

This year, Lexus has also launched the People’s Choice Award as a way to honor all the contestants. All votes have to be in by tomorrow night, and all voters will be entered to win an iPad Pro. The winner will be announced on April 23rd.

Lexus International president Yoshihiro Sawa shared his personal vision of the brand’s future with Australia’s Financial Review:

“Definitely the luxury market will have such a tsunami, we cannot avoid it. At the same time the luxury buyer always appreciates a very special service or product and sometimes [will] own it.

“I imagine in the future people will like to drive their own car as the main transport, commuting, on the weekend, to the airport … they would park there, then move to the other city or area, then after that will use a special share car, and accommodation.

“So we would like to provide such a total service, together with a sharing system and services. That kind of lifestyle coverage is very important. I’d like Lexus to be the luxury lifestyle brand, not the car brand.”

Sawa expands on his thoughts when discussing car ownership versus car sharing:

“Probably both,” he suggests, before discussing the idea that buying a Lexus in three or five years might make you part of a club that will cover a range of compatible services: upmarket hotels, transport, perhaps even restaurants and fine wine.

“We need to find partners that share our philosophy,” he adds. “Just selling a product is not enough. The new-wave guys like Tesla or Google, those kinds of guys are doing many kinds of things together. Those new game changers, they will be the most scary competitors.”

Electrification and autonomous technology have the power to reduce all vehicles to single base denominator, where the differences between brands will be subjective and boil down to design and consumer perception.

Lexus transitioning to an experience-driven, full-service lifestyle brand may seem ambitious, but it’s based on a pragmatic view of the future. Five years from now, it could be the only way for an auto manufacturer to survive.

The next-generation Lexus ES has been revealed, and the similarities with the exterior design of the LS flagship are undeniable — let’s put them side-by-side for a comparison:

There are so many shared design cues that pointing out the differences turns into a game of its own — the headlights, the grille pattern, the lack of a chrome samurai blade along the bottom of the doors.

Overall, the ES is softer in its curves and less articulated in its angles, but this should be expected and even preferred. After all, the LS is the Lexus sedan flagship and can’t give away all its secrets.

(Special thanks to RAL on the forums for this post idea!)

Lexus has released the first full photo of the next-generation ES sedan, along with this new teaser video:

From the video, we get a good look at the side profile:

There’s also a brief glance at the rear tail light:

The overall design borrows heavily from the LS, resulting in an ES made bolder and more upscale in appearance. There’s little else in the way of detail, but this is a great start to a very important vehicle in the Lexus lineup.

The next-generation Lexus ES will be revealed on April 25th at the Beijing Motor Show before its worldwide release sometime this year.

Starting in 2021, Toyota and Lexus vehicles in the USA will be able to communicate with each other using short-range wireless technology and potentially avoid accidents as a result.

Dedicated Short-Range Communications (DSRC) systems are able to broadcast data up to 300 meters, sharing its location, direction and speed, with nearby vehicles. Other DSRC-enabled vehicles will be able to use this information to avoid collisions, identify potential hazards, and map traffic patterns.

DSRC communicates using the 5.9 GHz wireless spectrum band dedicated to vehicle-to-vehicle data sharing, and does not require a cellular or data network. It is also based on industry standards, so any vehicle with DSRC will be able to communicate with each other regardless of manufacturer.

(Toyota and Lexus became the world’s first automaker to sell and commercialize vehicles equipped with DSRC when the technology launched in Japan in 2015. As of March 2018, more than 100,000 DSRC-equipped Toyota and Lexus vehicles were on the road in Japan. )