Tokyo Motor Show features wild, high-tech cars

One of the world's biggest automotive spectacles, the Toyota Motor Show, is opening this week, bringing together cutting-edge technology and some pretty strange designs.

While showcasing the latest from automakers like Toyota and Honda, the exhibition has always hewed toward designs that would be laughed off the road anywhere else in the world. It's all in the name of creativity.

One concept car a few years ago was aimed at showing where dogs could be stowed throughout a vehicle. The designs are aimed at Japanese consumers, who often prefer tall, boxy vehicles with tiny wheels that are perfect for Japan's narrow roads. In America, they'd flop.

This year, hydrogen-powered cars are expected to be a feature. Toyota just introduced the Mirai, its hydrogen-powered car in the U.S. Bloomberg News says Toyota will show a vehicle called the FCV Plus, which uses hydrogen to power a car and a house. Honda is expected to show its final design for hydrogen fuel cell car, one that like Mirai, would be bound for the U.S.

The show will also feature new sedans and performance cars that will be coming to the U.S.

Chris Woodyard on Twitter: @ChrisWoodyard.