It'd be of great use in some place like Afghanistan or other areas where roads are sparse or poorly maintained. The problem being though, what is the actual sales potential of these things? You could invent the finest piece of machinery ever made, and have it not sell because no one needs/can afford/ wants it. As far as an art project, that's fine in and of itself, and maybe I'm too cynical or too left-brained, but I don't see the point of taking all the time to design something if it's not ever going to be functional or even aesthetically pleasing in some way.
@looneynerd - that's just a really big version of the air tube things they have for bank drive-up tellers, right? I always thought it would be awesome to ride in one of those.