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Nissan Creates Oculus Rift Experience to Entice Younger Consumers

Posted: December 8, 2013 at 2:59 pm | Tags: Automobile Design, car design

Young consumers are into technology — but cars, not so much. So Nissan is reaching out to digital natives by bringing them into the car design process and giving them a hot new virtual reality technology to play with.

At the Tokyo Motor Show, the Japanese car company handed people virtual reality goggles designed by California startup Oculus VR. The company promises to bring the gaming world, among other things, to a whole new level by immersing audiences fully within a virtual environment via its Oculus Rift headset.

In the case of Nissan, the googles plunged participants into a virtual 3D world where they designed a concept car. Nissan is working on a theme it calls co-creation – including consumers in the car development process – and the VR game echoes that idea.

“We want to engage digital natives, people who would maybe not be interested in cars, or who expressed less passion for cars going forward, and co-creation allows us to engage them in a unique way, to bring them inside the process of vehicle development,” said Nissan’s global head of digital strategy, DeLu Jackson.

Young consumers aren’t buying as many cars as older generations, though there’s debate about whether it’s because of economic pressures or because cars are losing some cache.

AKQA London worked with Nissan on the Oculus project, which Mr. Jackson described as “an interesting way to tell the story of what we do as a company, but also what the future looks like.”

In the experience, participants start out with a chassis and build onto it by making choices about what to explore in the virtual world.

For example, in a scene featuring hot air balloons and kayaks in a river, people who gravitate toward the balloons signal a desire for comfort and elegance, while choosing kayaks signifies adventure.

The car design is adjusted based on each choice, and viewers come away with a virtual model car to explore inside and out. The game was part of Nissan’s auto show kiosk showing off two concept coupes, the sporty IDx NISMO and the sleek IDx Freeflow.

The Oculus Rift headset is still in development for the mass market, but since AKQA invested in the project through Kickstarter, it was given an early prototype to play with.

AKQA was experimenting with Oculus at the same it was exploring auto show concepts for Nissan, said Andy Hood, AKQA’s executive creative development director. Combining the two was natural.

“One of Nissan’s messages is ‘innovation that excites,’ … so the pairing of the two was particularly nice,” Mr. Hood said.

The technology uses no handset, just goggles, and viewers navigate the game through eye movement alone.

The whole process takes five or six minutes. One challenge was having such a short time to explain to people accustomed to screens that the virtual world exists all around them, even behind them, Mr. Hood said. Designers introduced that concept by having a hummingbird fly right up to people’s faces, forcing them to move around to dodge it.

Another challenge was “learning how far to push it before it starts to become too much roller coaster,” he said.

More than 1,500 people tried the game at the Tokyo show that ended Dec. 1, some queuing for 70 minutes, AKQA said.

Mr. Hood imagines many applications for Oculus beyond gaming — for example, schoolchildren learning about the Civil War “wouldn’t have to sit and talk about what it’s like to be at Gettysburg, (they) could actually be at Gettysburg.”

He expects to see a lot of the technology in the next 18 months. “It’s one of those things like iPhone apps,” he said. “Once people start to see the possibilities, I can imagine the floodgates are about to open.”

Article source: http://adage.com/article/global-news/nissan-making-cars-sexy-young-consumers/245546/

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Racing Stripes: Tiger Racing team aims to design efficient car despite lack of …

Posted: December 6, 2013 at 2:51 pm | Tags: Automobile Design, car design

Hidden in a warehouse on campus, securely tucked behind a cluster of plain white buildings, a group of mechanically inclined students toil away on a project they describe as “their life.”

Scraps of metal line tables and decorate the floor, along with spare tires, engine parts and countless nuts and bolts, which lay until grimy hands swipe them for assembly.

From freshmen to seniors, the Tiger Racing team devotes countless nights and weekends welding, designing, bolting and constructing a race car from the ground up to compete in the Formula Student Automotive Engineering Collegiate Design Series. The competition is held each year in May at the Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, Mich., and is the world’s largest collegiate engineering competition.

“It’s not easy, it gets intense,” said Matthew Richards, mechanical engineering senior and Tiger Racing president. “We sacrifice holidays and even weekends to work.”

But for the roughly 30 Tiger Racing members, part of the LSU Formula SAE Club, they wouldn’t have it any other way.

Team Tiger Racing finished 73 out of 120 teams at the competition last year, arguably its best showing since the team’s inception in the early ’90s. This year, the team is designing a new car with hope to make a top-35 finish. Members, however, have seen their fair share of obstacles potentially inhibiting that goal between team-induced budget cuts, a lost title sponsor and mechanical issues.

“Budget cuts are just another challenge,” Richards said. “It doesn’t end; another challenge will come. You have to learn how to overcome them.”

Learning to work through difficulties is something the students have come to accept, especially after the team lost one of its pivotal sponsors this year. And although it has presented an unexpected challenge to the students, it’s something they have been able to work through.

Current sponsors include BASF, Dow, Royal Purple, Performance Contractors and Baker Hughes among several others.

Brainstorming and collaboration between team members refocused the car’s design and helped them recognize more expensive materials may not be able to be used. For instance, a light, carbon fiber suspension was planned for this year’s car, but the team opted for steel to cut costs.

Students run every aspect surrounding the building process, as well as clinching sponsors, ordering parts and creating their own budget from funds they acquire. Assistant professor Ingmar Schoegl, formula SAE mandated faculty adviser assigned to Tiger Racing, assistant professor Ingmar Schoegl, lets the students make major decisions, which he said encourages more teamwork and forms a stronger learning process.

“I try not to get too much involved in the nuts and bolts because it’s really their job,” Schoegl said. “I usually try to stay in the background and I am there when they need something.”

This role helps the students learn more than just how to build a race car but also instills principles from economics and business. While racing the car — termed “dynamic events” — is a vital part of the competition, the team’s car is also judged on “static events,” which identify a cost report and business-logic plan.

“We want to focus as much as we can on the static events this year,” said Simon Shirazi, mechanical engineering senior and Tiger Racing co-captain. “[Last year] we did not prepare for them enough.”

The business plan the team comes up with will be critiqued by competition judges who will assess if funds were used efficiently to machine car parts. Marketing themselves and allocating money when needed can be just as important as designing the right part for the car, said Graham Lewis, mechanical engineering senior and Tiger Racing co-captain.

The team’s marketing efforts have increased this year to not only gain more sponsorship but get word out about the Formula SAE, which is gaining popularity in the state, according to Richards.

NOLA Motorsports — which operates a race track near New Orleans — has played a central role in developing the local racing scene, Richards said. Tiger Racing has developed a relationship with NOLA Motorsports as a sponsor and also as a partner to get more racing talent to Louisiana.

“The talent exists and there is no reason why LSU cannot be one of the top competitors in the competition,” Richards said. “There is a huge amount of students that want to move into fields like this.”

The University College of Engineering has recently implemented an international automotive minor to welcome that interest. Students take two semester-long classes in Italy in an exchange program with Politecnico di Torino, a leading engineering and architecture institution, and classes applied to the minor at the University include an internal combustion course taught by Schoegl.

Tiger Racing seniors are taking advantage of their last year of involvement with Formula SAE, and the late nights redesigning parts and long days troubleshooting problems has given them a practical understanding of how the business-engineering world works.

“The experience gives you a leg up,” Richards said. “Some companies only hire Formula SAE students.”

Lewis said he experienced firsthand what being a part of Formula SAE can have on potential employers.

“I gave [a potential employer] my résumé and they asked what sort of challenges I had to overcome,” Lewis said. “I had a perfect example. I explained the car design and how it differed from last year and what I went through to improve it. They were impressed with the answer.”

Many of Tiger Racing’s members will be spending the Christmas holidays manufacturing parts and testing different aspects that eventually will make its way onto the car’s frame, and Richards said he hopes to have the chassis and suspension completed by the first of the year.

To learn more about team Tiger Racing, visit tigerracing.weebly.com.

Article source: http://www.lsureveille.com/news/racing-stripes-tiger-racing-team-aims-to-design-efficient-car/article_b015865a-5e20-11e3-96d0-001a4bcf6878.html

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Does Your Car Look Happy To You? Designers Talk About The Evolution Of …

Posted: December 4, 2013 at 2:18 pm | Tags: Automobile Design, car design

Do you associate the front of a car with a face?

Who doesn’t, right? It doesn’t take much to look at the front of a car and see the eyes in the headlights, the nose in the hood or the grille, and a mouth in the grille or the bumper.

The practice of assigning human characteristics to cars goes back before the late 1960s “Herbie” Disney film franchise about the anthropomorphic Volkswagen Beetle, a cultural icon among American hippies following a decade of marketing by the German automaker that pushed the car’s cutesy, cartoonish, friendly front profile. And the look worked. With a few minor changes, the Beetle’s design remained largely static for more than seven decades even as other cherished models, like the Chevrolet Corvette, went through major facelifts.

“We’ve done studies that specifically look at how people are anthropomorphically connected to car designs,” Sam Livingstone, automotive design strategist for U.K.-based Car Design Research Ltd., told International Business Times. “Consumers are reading to some extent the face of the car as the face of a person and therefore will infer from it an attitude, be it aggressive, benign or friendly. We’ve done a lot of work with face design because we think it’s a massively important thing. Even if people don’t consciously read the face of a car, they certainly do it subconsciously.”

Subconsciously or not, a car’s look matters a great deal more than whether the design features actually serve any function. Nobody in the auto industry really believed the giant rocket fins of a ’50s Cadillac did anything to help aerodynamics; they were there because for some reason Americans at the time wanted large tailfins. And today, the so-called feature-lines – those distinct side panel creases and hood panel ribs – are there not because they serve any function but because consumers liked the look.

The Ford Fusion’s hood ribs serve no functional purpose. These lines (hood ribs, side panel creases) is what Ford and other automakers think consumers want, aesthetically speaking.
Ford

“Broadly speaking, the appearance of the car is dictated by the designer’s hand, not the wind tunnel,” said Livingstone, whose firm has worked with Volvo, Audi and other major auto manufacturers in determining future design trends.

Aesthetics might not bow to aerodynamics, but they must serve the interest of safety. New, tougher European regulations that went into effect this year, aimed at improving protections for pedestrians struck by vehicles, are having a profound effect on front-end design; the hoods of passenger cars are getting higher and bumpers are being lowered to mitigate injury to legs and heads. It’s part of a global initiative by the United Nations that automakers support.

Tom Matano, executive director for the School of Industrial Design at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, points out that even before these rules went into effect, automakers were planning ahead so that by now most mass-produced cars are employing these design changes.

“Everyone has absorbed the European safety bumper rules, and along the way designers realized you don’t need a safety bumper going across the front end and the grille could be situated directly above the bumper area,” Matano told IBTimes. “You no longer needed a strong, visible safety bumper across the front of the car.”

The 2014 Mercedes CLA45 AMG. Mercedes has joined other European automakers, such as BMW, in turning the front grille into a brand embellishment.
Daimler AG

So gone is the “grinning” chrome bumper, which has now been replaced with an interesting trend in automotive design: the grille as what Livingstone calls a “brand embellishment.” What was once a function of automotive engine cooling that allowed air to enter the front is now largely superfluous for most modern passenger cars. So what once served function is now form. BMW has its distinct kidney grille. Mercedes recently enlarged its badge and planted it in the middle of its relatively uniform grille design across its models. Now you now see mainstream automakers embellishing this concept innovated by the luxury brands to give their cars immediate recognition. Ford’s recent uniform front-end design for its latest sedans is a good example of this.

Compare the 2009 Ford Focus to the 2014 model. The 2009 front end is less blunt than the 2014 version, but the headlamps have started their evolutionary migration to the sides of the hood hatch. By the 2014 model, the bulk of the headlight is practically on the side. Like the 2014 Mustang above, the grille of the Focus has become more pronounced in part to abide by new global standards that require cars to have blunter front ends.
Wikimedia Commons/Ford

So what about the car’s “eyes?”

Matano, who helped design cars for Mazda, General Motors and BMW, said that for a long time the rules governing headlamps required round or horizontal rectangular front-facing lights. But that’s no longer the case. Now lights have sleeker wraparound forms. Designers have long wanted to diminish the noticeability of the thin gap between the hood hatch and its adjoining body panel. One way to do that was to move the grille up to meet the hood and to situate the headlights to the sides of the hood hatch rather than below it. The 2014 Chevy Malibu is a good example of this.

The 1981 Chevy Malibu and the 2014 version of the same model show many of the changes to front-end design. Notice how the trunk of the car is more rounded and more integrated from a design perspective than the square hatch of the earlier model. Headlights have changed radically as plastic extrusion technology has evolved. The grille is still present, but notice how it’s used to frame the Chevrolet badge, making the entire grille area a kind-of logo for the manufacturer and the brand.
Chevrolet/Wikimedia Commons

Headlight evolution is one of the more profound changes among vehicle components going in car design right now. The invention of the high-brightness, low energy white light-emitting diode – first invented by the Nichia Corp. in 1994 – is quickly being adopted in car design. And for good reason.

“There’s a packaging issue behind the headlamp,” said Matano. “Behind the lamp is about six inches of space you need for the typical headlight. But now with LEDs this depth is shallower, freeing up more design latitude. The technology gives you a different look.”

The advent of LED technology is still nascent, thanks largely to the price. But as LED lamps become more affordable they will certainly be adopted by mass-market automobiles and the changes could be profound, as seen in the upcoming 2015 Volvo VC90, where LED lights are incorporated into the front grille and the Volvo badge.

The 2015 Volvo XC90 has some LED lighting that is indicative of where external lighting is headed. In the future will there even be headlights as we know them?
Wikimedia Commons

It will be a while, if ever, before people stop looking at car faces as actual faces, but unless people demand cutesy, round-eyed and grinning cars again, it’s likely cars will continue to evolve until their front ends take on other less human associations.

Article source: http://www.ibtimes.com/does-your-car-look-happy-you-designers-talk-about-evolution-lights-grilles-bumpers-1491974

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SAIC’s ant-inspired concept wins LA Auto Show Design Challenge

Posted: December 2, 2013 at 1:39 pm | Tags: Automobile Design, car design

The 2013 LA Auto Show Design Challenge has been won by SAIC Motor Corp. The Chinese automaker’s “Mobiliant” concept saw off competition from eight other contenders who where challenged to create forward-looking designs under the theme “Biomimicry Mobility 2025 – Nature’s Answer to Human Challenges.”

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Over the past decade the LA Auto Show Design Challenge has been a forum for an array of thought-provoking and often wildly outlandish concepts, allowing designers to throw off the shackles of practicality and think as far outside the box as their imaginations can carry them. The 2013 event has proved no exception.

This year’s Biomimicry Mobility theme challenged competitors to provide solutions to transportation issues including congestion, pollution, safety and sustainability. Entries were judged on factors such as the creative adaptation of nature’s laws, the application of biomimicry, comfort, aesthetics, sustainability and of course, personality.

The SAIC Mobiliant concept is inspired by the simple structure of an ant’s body and their symbiotic relationship with trumpet trees. Among the technologies imagined for this single-seat urban vehicle is a translucent cover that mimics the exoskeleton of ants, absorbing pollutants from the air and converting them into fertilizers that are transferred to plants in an “Ecobuilding” (i.e. the trumpet trees), which returns the favor by providing the vehicle with fermentation products to power its biofuel cell. The concepts also sports something called a “Cilium Layer Advanced Wheel System” which would provide enough grip to start climbing walls … a feature that could be taken full advantage of in the 3D road network (the Mobiliant Expressway) which is proposed as part of the overall concept.

“The inspiration for the creative team comes directly from our surrounding environment,” says Anthony Williams-Kenny, Global Design Director at SAIC Motor Corp. “The rapid and dramatic growth of the world’s large conurbations inspires our designers to consider the requirements of personal mobility systems – to focus on the environmental factors related to automotive use such as the need to continue to reduce vehicle emissions, making each journey more efficient through the development of appealing, high value, personal transport.”

Other participants included BMW, Subaru and Toyota, with entries referencing everything from self-sustaining silk worms to maple seeds to Kangaroos.

The Mobiliant was awarded the prize after judges agreed that its focus on the concept of mutualism – the harmony and balance found in nature when two different organisms develop and mutually beneficial relationship – set it apart from other entries.

Hit the source link below or head to the gallery to check out some of the other radical concepts featured in this year’s competition.

Source: LA Auto Show Design Challenge

Article source: http://www.gizmag.com/saic-motors-ant-car-wins-design-challenge/29972/

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Beautiful car designs evoke strong emotions in men, study finds

Posted: November 30, 2013 at 1:25 pm | Tags: Automobile Design, car design

A new study suggests that men experience more emotion when looking at images of car design than they do when looking at images of children.

The research monitored the brainwave activity of men and women when shown a series of images chosen to elicit an emotional response. The results showed that, for men at least, car design is capable of evoking feelings on a par with the most basic of human emotions.

Participants were asked to rate a series of images including happy and crying babies, men and women considered to be beautiful, and pictures of modern and outdated cars while wearing a dry sensor EEG headset.

As well as showing a greater emotional response to car design than to children, 75 per cent of men involved in the experiment also demonstrated more emotion when shown a beautiful car than when shown a beautiful woman. Only one third of women rated images of car design higher than an image of an attractive man.

The experiment, conducted by Volvo and EEG specialists Myndplay, was followed up by a survey asking participants their thoughts and feelings in relation to car design.

A parallel survey conducted by OnePoll of 2000 participants revealed that 43 per cent of men said that they found the car shape and design to be the most appealing aspect, over the interior, gadgets, wheels and engine.

The front of the car was the most attractive feature for men, in contrast to the reaction from women where the rear of the car scored the most highly.

Almost three quarters (74 per cent) of men said that good design made them feel positive, and 60 per cent of men also said that driving a car they perceive as beautiful made them feel both confident and empowered.

When asked about the most important aspects of a car from a design perspective, 43 per cent of men put the car’s overall exterior shape above engine size, interior, specifications or wheel design. Women rated a car’s rear as its most attractive feature while men overwhelming said that a car’s front was its most attractive feature.

Of the results, Dr David Lewis, a leader in the neuroscience of consumerism and communications stated: “Appreciating an aesthetically pleasing design is an experience which combines understanding and emotions. These are so closely intertwined that it is impossible to distinguish between them. Aesthetic experience involves a unity of sensuous delight, meaningful interpretation, and emotional involvement.”

Article source: http://www.ctvnews.ca/health/health-headlines/beautiful-car-designs-evoke-strong-emotions-in-men-study-finds-1.1566291

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VW Design Vision Golf GTI (2013) CAR Review

Posted: November 28, 2013 at 12:40 pm | Tags: Automobile Design, car design

This is the VW Design Vision Golf GTI, Volkswagenâ€™s interpretation of the ultimate Golf GTI. Itâ€™s got nearly 500bhp, will hit 62mph in less than four seconds, and previews a new turbocharged 3.0-litre V6 engine thatâ€™s destined for future VWs. The VW Design Vision Golf GTI is only a concept car, but weâ€™ve had a brief taste of this hottest of hot hatches. Read on for CARâ€™s first drive review of the VW Design Vision Golf GTI.

How does the VW Design Vision Golf GTI match up against a regular Golf GTI?

Itâ€™s what a Golf GTI would look like if Volkswagenâ€™s designers didnâ€™t have to worry about pesky issues like road-going legality and pedestrian safety. â€˜The idea of this car was to explain our thinking behind the Golf Mk7, and especially the GTI version,â€™ says VWâ€™s head of exterior design Andreas Mindt.

It means youâ€™re looking at a GTI pushed to comic extremes â€“ itâ€™s shorter, lower and wider. The enlarged front splitter juts forward, the triple black strakes either side of the central front intake are bigger, and the headlights are thinner with exposed daytime running lights beneath. The wheels are huge 20in alloys, the creases that runs from the front wheelarches (through the GTI badges) and towards the back wheels are sharper, and huge side blades emphasise the upright C-pillar and rear-biased stance. The distended bodywork and riot of wings and fins arenâ€™t highly tuned aerodynamic aids though: â€˜We havenâ€™t spent too much time in the wind tunnel,â€™ admits Mindt with a smile.

Is the Design Vision Golf GTI concept mid-engined like the mad Golf GTI W12?

Despite the big side blades hinting at intakes for a mid-mounted motor, the Design Vision Golf GTI is somewhat more conventional than the Bentley-engined GTI W12 concept from 2007. Instead of a twin-turbo 6.0-litre W12 slung where the rear seats once where, this latest hotrod Golf GTI has a new narrow-angle â€˜VR6â€™ 3.0-litre V6 squeezed under the bonnet. Itâ€™s the same direct-injection engine that powered the CrossBlue Coupe concept unveiled at the 2013 Shanghai motor show, but this version has two turbochargers for a total of 496bhp, along with 413lb ft from 4000-6000rpm.

With all that grunt it canâ€™t be front-wheel drive like a normal GTI, and nor is it rear-drive like the GTI W12 either (which attempted to put 553lb ft through its back axle). Instead the Design Vision Golf GTI is four-wheel drive, with a Haldex 4Motion system.

Is it quicker than the brutish GTI W12?

Not quite. Four-wheel drive and a slick twin-clutch DSG transmission mean itâ€™ll smash 62mph in just 3.9sec, but despite only two driven wheels and an automatic gearbox the W12 was two-tenths quicker. And the new car tops a paltry 186mph versus 203mph. Still, itâ€™ll paste the latest Performance Pack-equipped GTI, which with 227bhp records 6.4sec to 62mph and a 154mph top speed.

What about the interior?

There are Porsche 911 GT3 RS-like red fabric door pulls instead of conventional handles, and in place of the rear seats is a huge carbon-trimmed X-shaped strut brace that provides the mounting points for the front seatsâ€™ four-point red race harnesses. Thereâ€™s only space in the back for two matt black helmets, strapped down by what look like the same sort of padded bands that Wayne Rooney wore to protect his gaping head wound. The bucket seats feature the same honeycomb trim as the front grille, and the carbon-trimmed dashboard is a departure for VW, focused and angled as it is on the driver to the exclusion of the passenger.

How does the Design Vision Golf GTI drive?

Thumb the red-rimmed starter button on the Alcantara-trimmed steering wheel and the unsilenced V6 bursts loudly into life. Theoretically you can tweak the dampers and engine mapping between Street, Sport or Track settings via a dial on the steering wheel, but this is only a concept car so it doesnâ€™t work, and nor do the gearshift paddles. So slot the gearstick into D instead, or S for sharper, faster shifts and just boot the throttle.

The twin-turbo V6 produces 413lb ft from just 2000rpm so it punches hard and early, and with four-wheel drive there are no traction issues pulling out of tight corners either. The engine roars louder and louder as the revs rise, when you lift thereâ€™s a screech from the wastegates, and when you brake the huge carbon-ceramics reign in this unique Golf, the gearbox downshifts aggressively and thereâ€™s a deep boom as the engine is blipped to match your road speed.

The steering is reasonably light, to overcome those 8.5in wide front tyres, but as the engineers havenâ€™t had time to fuss over tuning the feedback through the wheel is surprisingly honest. The ride is pretty tough though â€“ blame those big wheels and the low ride height. Push harder? This concept car creaks and too many full-throttle applications run the risk of over-heating the twin exhausts and igniting its priceless bodywork.

Verdict

Weâ€™re not going to pretend a quick drive in a one-off concept car has delivered a thorough road test, but the Vision Design Golf GTI is much more exuberant and characterful than a normal GTI, a more focused machine for a much smaller audience. Itâ€™ll never make production, but long may VW keep building these OTT GTIs. And in the meantime, hereâ€™s hoping the new 3.0-litre VR6 finds a home in something more sporting than a Touareg SUVâ€¦

Article source: http://www.carmagazine.co.uk/Drives/VW-Design-Vision-Golf-GTI-2013-CAR-Review/

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SAIC Motor Named Winner of 10th LA Auto Show Design Challenge

Posted: November 26, 2013 at 12:19 pm | Tags: Automobile Design, car design

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 25, 2013 /PRNewswire/ – After a long deliberation, the judges of the 10th annual LA Auto Show® Design Challenge named SAIC Motor the winner of the 2013 competition. SAIC Motor beat out eight world-renowned auto design studios for the prestigious honor, with its innovative public transit solution aimed at alleviating urban problems such as air pollution and traffic congestion.

Inspired by a simple ant’s distinctive body structure and the mutually beneficial relationship between ants and trumpet trees, SAIC Motors designed Roewe “Mobiliant.” Mobiliant is a single-seat vehicle for urban public transit, which helps improve both transportation and operation efficiency for future urban ecological systems.

Though the competition was extremely close, the judges unanimously agreed that it was Mobiliant’s focus on the concept of mutualism that set it apart. The system was based upon the balance and harmony found in nature when two organisms of different species exist in a mutually beneficial relationship. The judges also agreed that the Mobiliant concept was optimistic, beautiful and best answered the competition criteria by mimicking a truly sustainable solution that resembled an ancient system that has worked for millions of years.

Themed “Biomimicry Mobility 2025 – Nature’s Answer to Human Challenges,” the competitors focused on mobility solutions for a variety of transportation issues, such as congestion, pollution, safety and sustainability, with the design inspiration coming from Mother Nature.

“The inspiration for the creative team comes directly from our surrounding environment,” said Anthony Williams-Kenny, Global Design Director at SAIC Motor. “The rapid and dramatic growth of the world’s large conurbations inspires our designers to consider the requirements of personal mobility systems – to focus on the environmental factors related to automotive use such as the need to continue to reduce vehicle emissions, making each journey more efficient through the development of appealing, high value, personal transport.”

Other auto design studios who participated in the LA Auto Show’s 2013 Design Challenge represented brands BMW, MINI, Changfeng, JAC Motors, Mazda, Qoros, Subaru and Toyota. From self-sustaining silk worms to long-forgotten waterways, the entries created fierce competition and long deliberation by the judges.

Entries were judged on various criteria: creative adaptation of nature’s laws (plants animals); application of human intelligence to Biomimicry in unique ways to improve the efficiency of future vehicles; comfort, convenience, aesthetics of the vehicle; sustainability of the building, servicing, operation, and life cycle; and the personality of the vehicle.

The esteemed panel of judges included Tom Matano, Executive Director, School of Industrial Design at San Francisco’s Academy of Art University; Stewart Reed, Chair of Transportation Design at Pasadena’s Art Center College of Design; John Manoogian, Adjunct Professor Auto Design Studio at the College for Creative Studies; and Abel Sampson, Publisher of the Design Group of CarDesignNews. The panel was also joined by guest judge, Dr. Gabriel A. Miller, who currently serves as the Director of Research Development at the Centre for Bioinspiration at San Diego Zoo Global, where he devotes his work to the implementation of nature’s design and engineering solutions to advance humanity, wildlife, and habitats.

In addition to the nine competing studios, three additional studios chose to highlight their team’s capabilities by displaying their concepts in this year’s Design Gallery, making for a total of 12 displays. These organizations include Hyundai Design and Research Center, Mercedes-Benz Advanced Design Center California and Nissan Design America. The concepts will be prominently displayed at the LA Auto Show in the newly created Design Gallery through the run of the public show (Nov. 22-Dec. 1, 2013).

The LA Auto Show Design Challenge was sponsored by Faurecia, the world’s sixth-largest automotive supplier specializing in automotive seating, emissions control technologies, interior systems and auto exteriors. Other sponsors that made Design LA possible included Lacks Enterprises, Inc., Eastman, Dassault Systemes, Autodesk, Bose and BBC.com, alongside the 2013 Design Challenge media partner, Car Design News. The Design Challenge is organized by the LA Auto Show and the Design Los Angeles chairs, Joan Gregor and Chuck Pelly of The Design Academy.

For more information, please visit www.laautoshow.com and www.connectedcarexpo.com.

About the Los Angeles Auto Show and Connected Car Expo
Founded in 1907, the Los Angeles Auto Show is the first major North American auto show of the season each year. Press Days for the 2013 LA Auto Show® will be held on Nov. 20 and 21. The show will be open to the public Nov. 22 – Dec. 1. The Connected Car Expo (CCE) will be the first expo to unite automotive and technology professionals in an effort to increase development and foster relationship-building in the connected car industry, providing attendees with access to the key players and top media constructing the future of the connected car. CCE will debut on Nov. 19, and continue in conjunction with the 2013 LA Auto Show Press Days. The LA Auto Show is endorsed by the Greater L.A. New Car Dealer Association and is operated by ANSA Productions. To receive the latest show news and information, follow LA Auto Show on Twitter at twitter.com/LAAutoShow or via Facebook at facebook.com/LosAngelesAutoShow and sign up for alerts at www.LAAutoShow.com. For more information on CCE please visit http://connectedcarexpo.com/

Hashtags: #LAAutoShow

High Resolution Images Available Here

Media Contacts:
Sanaz Marbley/Alexis Linn
JMPR Public Relations, Inc.
(818) 992-4353
smarbley@jmprpublicrelations.com
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SOURCE Los Angeles Auto Show

Insight: Work ethic, comic hero make Koreans hot shots in car design

Posted: November 24, 2013 at 11:53 am | Tags: Automobile Design, car design

(Reuters) – In today’s auto industry, where famed Japanese quality and durability are increasingly a given, design is king and, among designers, South Koreans are hot property.

From General Motors’ bold Chevrolet Camaro to the quintessential British gentlemen’s Bentley, more top models carry the flair and signature of a group of designers from South Korea, which some have dubbed “Asia’s Italy” for its impact on car design, fashion and aesthetics.

As competition in the industry becomes ever more cut-throat, partly as gaps in quality and technology narrow, automakers need bolder, edgier designs to differentiate. From a global talent pool, South Koreans stand out.

Designers, including Sangyup Lee, Jinwon Kim and Jay Jongwon Kim, are gaining influence at automakers in the United States and Europe, and even at Toyota Motor, as well as, of course, at Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors.

Theories for this Korean wave vary: from Hyundai’s rise and the nation’s work ethic, to a societal emphasis on external beauty – Korea has a thriving cosmetic surgery industry – and the impact of a 1990s comic book and TV series called “Asphalt Man”, which starred local heartthrob Lee Byung-hun as a young car designer. The aspiring fictional designer inspired “a lot of kids, including me, at the time,” said Sangyup Lee, who is in charge of exterior design and advanced design at Bentley’s main studio in Crewe, in northwest England.

Four years ago, Lee led a Korean-Russian-Brazilian team that redesigned the new Camaro for launch by GM in 2009. He later moved to Volkswagen and then to the German group’s Bentley unit. Another member of the Camaro team was Steve Kim, a Korean native, who is a director at GM’s design studio in Seoul. The two used to work in the basement of Lee’s house in a Detroit suburb, often late into the night tossing around ideas and filling up sketchpads to conjure up the new Camaro.

“KOREAN MAFIA”

At GM, the Detroit automaker that bought failed Daewoo Motors in 2002, close to three dozen Koreans are among several hundred professionals working at the main U.S. studio in Warren, Michigan – and are dubbed the “Korean mafia” or “K-team”.

Tim Lee, GM’s global manufacturing chief and China unit chairman, says most global brands are now equally capable on quality and technology. “What sets us apart? Great design and (economies of) scale,” he said, noting a successful automaker has to offer more car for the customer at affordable prices.

At Toyota, Jinwon Kim led the design of the FJ-Cruiser, an edgy sport utility vehicle. Mercedes-Benz designer Hubert Lee, American-born but who grew up in Seoul, masterminded the styling of the CLS luxury coupe, and Jay Jongwon Kim is a rising talent at Opel, one of the design brains behind the Monza concept car that won plaudits at this year’s Frankfurt auto show.

“Koreans are extremely good designers, well trained and disciplined,” said Chris Bangle, a former BMW design chief who now runs a design consultancy in Italy.

Bumsuk Lim, a Korean native and a professor of car design at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California – widely regarded as the Harvard of auto design – says the rise of Korean designers is a result of a turn in the global industry. “In most mature markets people have moved on and cars are generally nothing more than a means of transportation,” he said. “In Korea and, increasingly, China, people still dream of owning cars and they’re considered a status symbol,” making car design a desirable profession.

In a typical class of 12-15 students at the Art Center, more than half are Asian, and half of those are Korean, noted Lim, who previously worked at GM and Honda Motor. GM’s Steve Kim noted that economic power shifts mean the next wave of designers is likely to emerge from China and Southeast Asia.

TRAILBLAZER

A trailblazer for today’s Korean design talent was John Chun, a Korean War veteran who in the late-1960s designed Shelby Cobras, tricked-out performance variants of the Ford Mustang. Chun, who was also a consultant to Hyundai and worked for Tonka Toys, died in July, aged 84.

A couple of decades later, Art Center’s Lim and Bentley’s Lee came of age, paving the way for the current generation of Korean designers, though Bangle, the ex-BMW design chief, said the world is still waiting for Korea to produce the likes of Japan’s Ken Okuyama, who designed the Ferrari Enzo, and Shiro Nakamura, Nissan Motor’s chief designer.

Beyond an innate design talent, Koreans’ success owes much to the nation’s famed work ethic and tenacity, said Bangle, recalling how Jay Jongwon Kim, an industrial design student, turned up unannounced at BMW’s Munich studio one day in 2006.

With no appointment, Kim paid his own way to Germany armed only with the address of BMW’s headquarters, a portfolio of designs and a hunger to succeed. Once he had located the design studio, Kim had to beg reluctant receptionists to call a designer whose name he had found on the Internet. The student, who barely spoke English, let alone German, was eventually allowed in and gave the first of half a dozen presentations that day, first at the MINI studio and then at the main BMW studio to Bangle and current BMW design chief Adrian Van Hooydonk.

Six months later, Kim was back at BMW, this time with an appointment, to present to Bangle a scaled-down model of a design he had shown earlier. He gave a dazzling presentation, complete with lights and music, and was offered an internship on the spot. That led to a formal job offer seven months later, which was scuppered by the 2008 global financial crisis. Undeterred, Kim secured a position at Mercedes-Benz’s studio in Yokohama, and later moved to GM’s Opel, where his work on the Monza concept hints at the design language for Opel’s next generation of cars.

CADILLAC’S PARK

A key member of GM’s “Korean mafia” in Michigan is Christine Park, who was lead interior designer for the Cadillac XTS full-size sedan launched last year to help revive the storied brand.

Park, now Cadillac’s lead exterior designer, says the success of her compatriots coincides with the rise of Korea’s fashion and architectural industries as the economy has prospered. She says her parents and grandparents are part of Korea’s lost generation for whom life was a tough slog through Japanese occupation, World War II and the Korean War.

“They had to worry about whether they had enough to eat day to day,” said the Korea native who was educated in California. Parents wanted their children to become lawyers, doctors or engineers, she added. “Now, art is very much celebrated,” making car design a more desirable career choice.

Bentley’s Lee said Koreans are also playing catch-up with developed car markets as they lacked a “car culture.” The 44-year-old said that, unlike some of his peers today, his family did not have “a big garage full of hot-rod cars.” Similarly, Kim at Opel, the son of a rice miller, said he rarely saw cars on the streets of Buan when he was growing up.

From the age of 12, Lee attended “art cram school” in the evenings in Seoul, determined to gain entry to Hongik University, a leading art school. He went on to study sculpture at Hongik and then car design at Art Center, before joining GM in 1999 after a stint at Porsche and Pininfarina, an independent Italian design studio.

“We don’t have a strong automotive tradition in Korea, so most of us are very hungry and willing to work hard” to gain the knowledge and expertise in car design, Lee said. “That makes us flexible and versatile.”

The biggest challenge for Korean designers now is consistency, moving from one-off hits to developing a lasting legacy that is “the definition of good designers,” Patrick le Quement, Renault’s design chief who retired in 2009 after 22 years, said in an email exchange.

“Design is like F1 racing, it’s good to win a race, but it doesn’t mean you’ll become world champion. There are drivers who made a habit of winning and those that won occasionally, for lack of talent, concentration and dedication.”

“I’m very impressed by the overall quality of young Korean designers. Consistency is the sign of real talent.”

(Editing by Ian Geoghegan)

Article source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/18/us-autos-design-korea-insight-idUSBRE9AH12820131118

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Six Flags unveils car design for new record-breaking coaster

Posted: November 22, 2013 at 11:48 am | Tags: Automobile Design, car design

Six Flags unveils car design for new record-breaking coaster

By James Kust

CREATED Nov. 21, 2013

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GURNEE, ILL. – Six Flags Thursday unveiled the design of the car for its new record-breaking roller coaster, “Goliath”.

New for 2014, Goliath will be the fastest wooden roller coaster in the world and feature the world’s tallest and steepest drop. All total, the wooden coaster will tout three world records.

Goliath takes riders up a mammoth 165 foot lift hill, then plunges them down a record-setting 180 foot, 85 degree drop, crowning it the tallest and steepest drop on a wooden roller coaster in the world.

Construction on the coaster began in September. The ride is slated to open late May 2014.

Article source: http://www.620wtmj.com/news/local/Six-Flags-unveils-car-for-new-record-breaking-coaster-232912361.html

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Insight – Work ethic, comic hero make Koreans hot shots in car design

Posted: November 20, 2013 at 11:24 am | Tags: Automobile Design, car design