Italdesign PopUp Next on display at The Victoria and Albert Museum in London

The Victoria and Albert Museum in London opens "Cars: accelerating the modern world", an exhibition looking at the car as the driving force that accelerated the pace of the 20th century.

The exhibition brings together a wide-ranging selection of cars that have never been on display in the UK, each telling a specific story about their impact on the world. This includes the first production car in existence, a converted low-rider, a 1950s concept car and Italdesign’s Pop.Up Next.

Showcasing 15 cars and 250 objects across three main sections, the exhibition examines how the car changed our relationship to speed, how it changed the way we make and sell, and how it altered the landscape around us, from countryside to cityscape.

The exhibition ends with the Pop.Up Next autonomous flying car. On display for the first time in the UK, the car combines the four major innovations transforming the future of driving: electric power, autonomous driving, service-oriented, and flying.

Around the object, a newly commissioned film juxtaposes imagery referencing the original promise of the car (freedom, speed and efficiency), with its unintended consequences (traffic jams, pollution and social tensions), and provide a look to the current innovations that aim to renew this original promise for the 21st century.

The exhibition opens to the public on November 23 and will be opened until April 19, 2020.