In 1939, General Motors wowed millions at the New York World's Fair with its "Futurama" exhibit purporting to show in model form what life would look like in 1960.
Much of what was depicted - sprawling suburbia, skyscrapers and seven-lane highways - has come to pass as GM helped to map out a car-centred landscape as the world's leading auto maker.
At next year's World Expo, Toyota Motor Corp will also be out to impress - this time with real, rather than imagined, technology.
Having lobbied heavily to hold the event near its headquarters in Aichi, central Japan, the world's second-biggest car maker will spend about $35 million to excite the 15 million expected Expo-goers with its latest technology and concepts that it hopes to apply in real life one day.
Among the highlights will be an unmanned platoon of people-movers guided by a row of magnets in the ground, an orchestra of horn-blowing robots, and a one-seater capsule on wheels that doubles as a communication tool between drivers. "I have no doubt that (GM's exhibit) was one of the major driving forces behind the ensuing change in landscape," said Shin Kanada, a top Toyota official heading the group's Expo plans.
"I don't think we can send a message to change lifestyles - there's too much available information now - but diversification (of transportation methods) will occur."
The magnet-guided IMTS, or Intelligent Multimode Transit System, features glass-covered buses that are designed to automatically keep a safe distance between each other - an idea that GM's Futurama exhibit toyed with 65 years ago.
Toyota says the IMTS would cost less to operate than today's public transport systems since it needs no rail tracks or driver.
Visitors will also be able to ride the Toyota group's hydrogen-powered fuel cell buses, which emit only water and have been running on limited routes in Tokyo since last August.
The Aichi Expo will run for six months starting March 25.
Toyota also plans to depict a world free of traffic accidents using the single-seater, capsule-shaped "i-unit" vehicle, which will have built-in sensors to automatically dodge other vehicles.
The i-unit, still under development and derived from the PM (Personal Mobility) concept shown at last year's Tokyo Motor Show, stems from Toyota's research into IT and artificial intelligence - hence the robots - to one day "teach" cars to avoid crashes.