In the future, our means of travel may get a whole lot faster, by way of super-fast maglev trains being driven around or in self navigating pods. It's hard to say what the future holds for this sort of means of transportation, especially after Elon Musk suggested his Hyperloop system.

The second-place winner of the 2014 Michelin Challenge uses two divergent modes of transportation into a single, seamless driving experience and you can choose whether you want to drive or not.

Drafted up by Chuang Dong, Zhen Qiu and Haowen Deng, the AKA24 system is more than just a car or a train. Drivers can tool around on roadways if they like but if they rather relax, then they can just drive up to a maglev railway line and let go. Once they are on the railway, their cars will be snagged magnetically and flipped up on its side.

Its wheels will contract and fold into the train's axles while in train mode and pop back out as you re-enter the roadway. The concept relies on some very small in-wheel motors and something called "glass battery material" for power, so we're not exactly holding our breath for the AKA24's imminent construction.

For now, it is a concept. But who knows. It could be one possible way to travel in the future.

[Michelin Challenge, via Yanko Design]