If you live in California, I don’t have to tell you this, but rent is just too high. In fact, it seems like everything has become way too expensive everywhere. In 2006, GMC designers presented their idea for the ultimate RV that could also be an affordable home, something start-up companies are still trying to do today. This is the 2006 GMC Pad, and it remains one of the strangest RV concepts shown at an auto show.

Using RVs and other weird builds to solve the housing crisis seems to be a popular idea among California startups right now. Earlier this year, I wrote about how the AC Future Electric Transformer House, designed by Pininfarina, is supposed to be both the best RV and the solution to housing problems. These concepts sound OK on paper, but not only do they often have that vaporware quality, but there’s always a big catch. The Electric Transformer House is supposed to cost $200,000. If you can’t afford the rent, definitely don’t buy a $200,000 RV.

But I expect ambitious promises with huge caveats from start-ups; I don’t expect that from established automakers. So you can imagine my surprise when the bishop told me that GMC had once come up with the idea of ​​solving the housing problem with mobile homes.

The Design Challenge of the Los Angeles Auto Show 2006

So let’s first answer the big question: Why did GM designers set out to design something that could solve Los Angeles’ housing problems?

As Popular mechanics As he writes, Southern California is home to many design studios, which is why designers from major manufacturers enter a themed design competition for the Los Angeles Auto Show each year. 2006 was the third year the competition was held, and designers were tasked with creating vehicles that reflected “An LA Adventure.” In other words, designers had to create vehicles that were a nod to life in LA.

Designers from 10 manufacturers took part and developed very different concepts. None of the vehicles were intended to go into production, but served as inspiration for possible production vehicles in a possibly distant future.

I’ll give you some examples of what the competition has done.

Audi designers created the Nero, a concept that was intended to be a modern interpretation of a 1930s streamlined car, and to represent the Los Angeles lifestyle with its “pure power, speed and style.”

Honda’s designers went in a rather silly direction and decided to depict different lifestyles in LA.

The Running Bus was a public bus powered by ten people running. The Jacarzzi (above) was a sports car and a whirlpool in one.

Hyundai and Kia had some pretty cool ideas. The former’s designers created a fuel cell drag racer called the Greenspeed Gator. The latter built the Sidewinder, a drift car powered by a natural gas turbine.

Even Smart was present at the 2006 LA Auto Show, as the company was actively trying to enter the US market. Its designers created a fantastic beach cruiser for lifeguards.

Of course, these are just sketches and renderings and not real vehicles, but they demonstrate the imagination of the design teams of major car manufacturers.

Then we come to General Motors. While most other designers were designing something funny or silly, GMC designers Steve Anderson, Senon B. Franco III, Jay Bernard, Phil Tanioka, Sidney Levy, Brian Horton, Alessandro Zezza, Christine Ebner and Frank Saucedo were creating something that solved real problems.

A new GMC motorhome

The mission behind the GMC Pad is to create affordable housing in Los Angeles:

The PAD, an urban loft with mobility, a concept for living in the ever-changing cultural landscape of Southern California, or simply an alternative for those who cannot afford the growing Southern California real estate market. It is a concept for home ownership that allows cultural and geographic freedom for the modern urban dweller. The PAD represents a sensible solution to the problems of sprawl, development, congestion and their harmful effects on the region’s environment.

If those aren’t the saddest opening lines for a concept car, I don’t know what is.

The idea behind the GMC Pad is that instead of paying a high rent or buying an absurdly expensive property, you simply buy a GMC Pad, which would probably be cheaper despite all the features the designers theoretically intended this vehicle to have in reality.

The pad starts with the exterior, which looks like a GM Futurliner in 2053. You control the RV from the center bridge, and there are tiny rectangular windows at the ends of the bus. Behind the two bumpers of the vehicle are much larger windows with switchable tint. Getting in and out of the RV is done in the black, presumably glass, part there in the middle.

Render images show the pad to be a three-axle, six-wheeled beast with two steering axles. Supposedly, a theoretical, real GMC Pad would be powered by a diesel-electric hybrid system that would power the bus while driving or power the house inside when you’re parked. GMC’s designers said they could imagine a pad having enough fuel and water supplies for weeks or even months of wild camping. Photovoltaic cells would harness the sun’s energy, while electromagnetic suspension would facilitate leveling.

The interior is a bit of a horror scene. GMC’s designers have given the RV a combination living and kitchen area, as well as a skydeck and personal spa on the other side. They don’t say how big a GMC Pad might be, but I would imagine it’s about the size of an old GMC RV, or perhaps the Futurliner. Either way, this is a space suitable for no more than two people at best.

And my goodness, those people will be living in some kind of dystopia where every single wall is a giant display of some sort. The designers say the concept would include DirecTV, OnStar, XM and Wi-Fi, as well as teraflops of storage. All so you can literally immerse yourself in walls of entertainment. GMC’s designers also made provision for you to park your pad in your workplace’s parking lot so you can live at work. Or maybe you could snag a work-from-home job and work from your pad.

Of course, it’s also meant to be a recreational vehicle, and GMC envisioned you being able to park it along the Pacific Coast Highway and other famous spots in California. Finally, the GMC Pad was also meant to be flexible, and designers envisioned a future where GMC Pads could potentially be used for disaster relief, construction, media, or as emergency shelter.

A future that somehow happened

Obviously the GMC Pad never made it past the concept stage and that wasn’t really the intention. However, as I said, the designers wanted the pad to be something that maybe someone could build at some point. Perhaps the designers at AC Future looked at a pad at some point in the past.

With that said, I’m still not entirely sure what the mission or mission statement is of the startups trying to make something like this happen. If everyone lived in a futuristic RV, wouldn’t that just cause other headaches? I mean, imagine having to park thousands of these things in LA; and those who commute to work in an RV won’t exactly be easing traffic. I also can’t imagine this being actually affordable unless the builder was being particularly charitable.

It seems like that future is already a reality. All over America, people live in mobile homes because they can’t afford the high cost of housing. But they sleep in old vehicles, not fancy new ones with screens on the walls.

At the very least, it’s impressive to see what designers can come up with when they’re allowed to do what they want. The GMC Pad is equal parts fascinating and terrifying, with a dash of cool thrown in. If it ever got built, it would certainly be one of the most striking RVs ever put on the road. Maybe they can just leave out the screens and stuff and make it nice and cheap.

But on the other hand, it’s sad that it’s even an idea.

(Images: Manufacturer.)