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CHIBA, Japan — Do automobiles really need steering wheels? Who needs an accelerator pedal — or a brake pedal, for that matter? Does a vehicle really need four wheels, or is one enough?

These are the challenges to conventional thinking that exhibitors at the Tokyo Motor Show are trying to address this year as the auto industry comes to terms with a future that promises to change all the rules.

The show, which opened to the public in this suburb on Oct. 24 and runs through Nov. 4, is much smaller, as struggling foreign automakers decided to stay away. But the dreams of the about 10 automakers who did display vehicles (down from about 35 at the last show, two years ago) are expansive enough to shake up the entire industry.

Only at Tokyo, which has a reputation for being a free-spirited, sometimes whimsical auto show, would you find an electric unicycle, a car that drives like a video game, robotic prosthetic aids or a prototype for a solar-powered gasoline-free gas station.