Let’s get this out of the way now: all of the participants at the 2012 Los Angeles Design Challenge deserve a ton credit for the concept vehicles they designed. Mercedes->ke187 deserves a huge chuck of credit for actually building a real-scale Ener-G-Force and bringing it to the LA Auto Show->ke211.

Unfortunately, there was only room for one winner, and that winner is Subaru’s->ke86 Highway Automated Response Concept.

As a futuristic concept for what Subaru deems as “24-hour highway monitoring for Hawaii’s highway patrol,” the SHARC Concept captured the essence of this year’s theme best. It’s the smallest of all the concept vehicles, but still retains great functionality, an awesome design, and uses renewable energy. For achieving this delicate balance, the SHARC Concept was deemed as the best of them all.

"The SHARC captured the vision of the Design Challenge theme by combining functionality and problem-solving technology around a dynamic and plausible story," Design LA’s Chuck Pelly said.

Subaru designed the SHARC highway patrol vehicle to provide the kind of innovative, affordable and environmentally conscious solution for 24-hour highway monitoring, protection, and rapid emergency response in Hawaii, all while adhering to the state’s strict UltraGreen carbon-neutral environmental regulations.

It’s unlikely that we’ll see the SHARC as an actual production vehicle in the near future -- maybe the distant future -- but that’s getting ahead of ourselves. It does, however, give us a vision of what the future could look like in law enforcement.

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