From a Las Vegas stage today, Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda asked an audience to imagine how the future of mobility could transform Burning Man. Then he put forward his own vision: the e-Palette. Like the humble slab of wood for which it's named, this electric, self-driving vehicle is versatile by design. It could be a cargo van. Or a flexible complement to an established mass transit system. Or a pizza delivery vehicle. Or, for Burners, building a temporary city in the desert with all sorts of needs, maybe a bit of everything.

"We can quickly create a mobile hub for services from medical clinics to entertainment and festivals," Toyoda said as he shared the dais with his company's boxy concept vehicle at CES. The e-Palette isn't really a specific vehicle, but more of a class of vehicles. It will come in at least three sizes, and the interior of any given vehicle will depend on what it's going to be used for. The idea is that no matter what, or who, you want to move, there's an e-Palette for that. And you'll never need a steering wheel or pedals.

Now, renderings of futuristic vehicles crowd the annual Consumer Electronics Show like so many extra battery packs in the pockets of sweaty journalists dashing from one convention hall to the next. And we've seen plenty of autonomous rides that look like this one: in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Arlington, Texas, in Switzerland and Singapore, even Vegas itself (where one endured a crash on its first day of service).