PC World Business

The economy is in full-blown meltdown. Home values are dropping. Businesses are closing. Layoffs are coming. Maybe it's time to escape from civilization and wait out the crash?

As digital mobile technology frees us to work from anywhere, most of us don't take advantage of that freedom in part because we're chained to our homes. But what if you could break that last chain? What if your home was as mobile as your work?

No, I'm not talking about old-and-busted RV living. Who wants to drive a boxy, clunky trailer park mobile home and live in a boring campground facility? I'm talking about the new hotness: A vehicle that lets you travel, live and work just about anywhere. I'm talking about true digital nomad living.

A German company called Unicat makes a range of what they call expedition vehicles that take both ruggedness and luxury to new, high-tech extremes.

At first glance, Unicat vehicles might seem like fancy RVs. But the lifestyle they enable is the opposite of the RV lifestyle.

RVs are all about dependence on infrastructure (campgrounds, electrical hookups and so on), gas stations, good roads and laundromats. Unicats, on the other hand, free you from all of this. They go almost anywhere -- roads or no roads. They carry your luxuries and provide the power to run them.

The company calls Unicat vehicles "land yachts" because they're designed to sustain luxury living without access to civilization -- like a yacht must do on long trips across the ocean. Avi Meyers, the owner of the North American authorized Unicat dealer, which happens to be in Silicon Valley's Palo Alto, has personally crossed the Sahara in one.

For the survivalists among you, one blogger called the Unicat a "panic room on wheels." When the going gets tough, the digital get going -- into the wild.

Bulletproof living

First, the bad news. Unicat vehicles are expensive. They cost far more than an average home. Prices range from US$500,000 to $1 million each after you're done customizing and outfitting.

Now the good news. Unicat vehicles are simply amazing.