We have done a lot of work on composite materials that are related to textiles. The GINA project was never intended to be a commercialized vehicle; it was a concept, almost an art piece, if you like.
I think some of the challenges are safety issues, potentially fire problems. I guess there would be some substantial difficulties in manufacturing a vehicle like that at a manageable cost. It's one thing to build a concept vehicle that costs $5 million, but you're not going to sell very many of them. The production rate would also be a problem, because the kinds of manufacturing processes they went through just don't lend themselves....
At Mr. Robertson's company's factory in Windsor, Ontario, a new minivan comes off the line every 42 seconds. You simply can't build those vehicles. If you go to the Chevrolet Corvette assembly plant in Bowling Green, Kentucky, I think the tack time there is about 15 or 20 minutes. Every 15 minutes or so a new vehicle rolls off the line. That's okay because those cars cost $100,000 and they only sell a few, so they can just make a few and make money on them. It's not a mass-market car.
There are all kinds of technological barriers around introducing new materials. That doesn't mean it can't be done. Modern cars are quite different from what you found 20 years ago, but the investment required is in the many billions of dollars, and it just takes a long time to spool those things up.