Photo by Kazuhiro Nogi/ AFP/Getty Images

Late last month, at the 40th Tokyo Motor Show, Nissan Motor Co. showed off a concept car with a literally dizzying array of features. The passenger cab in the Pivo 2 electric car can swivel 360 degrees to face any direction. Why would you want to do that? Well, for starters, there’s never any need to back the car up: simply swivel the cab 180 degrees and drive what is now forward. But wait, it gets weirder. The main improvement from the 2005 Pivo 1, which had similar Tilt‑a-Whirl action, is that the new car’s wheels can all turn 90 degrees. So now you could drive sideways while facing diagonally…if you really wanted to.