Cubicle-like urban car concept envisions commuting havens of the future

Posted on 08/04/2024 by JC Torres

Everyone travels, whether alone or with others, for work, school, or even leisure. Not everyone, however, enjoys traveling in the same way, especially those who prefer some quiet, solitary time during commutes. Unfortunately, most of the self-driving vehicle concepts seem to focus on turning cars into social spaces, practically removing boundaries between passengers. That’s probably fine for families and friends on their way to a vacation destination, but some people going to and from the office might prefer a bit of quiet downtime on the road. In contrast, this forward-looking design offers an alternative experience, one that envelopes the passenger in their own private space, and it seems to take inspiration from one of the most isolating designs man has ever made: the office cubicle.

Designer: Chloe Gao

The idea of self-driving cars is for people to spare themselves the drudgery and exhaustion of driving so that they can spend more time on more important things. For some people, that might be making connections with other people in the vehicle, but others might prefer some “me time” instead. It’s for these people, especially the “Gen Z” group who value independence and personal immersion, that this urban commuting concept was designed.

As its name suggests, the H-BOX concept turns the car into a box-like machine, and the two-seater model the chairs set to the back of the cabin. Unlike most self-driving automobile concepts, however, this seems to still pay heed to the need for manual control from time to time, so the “driver’s seat” can slide forward to take hold of the futuristic steering well if needed. That further widens the separation between the two seats, which might be a preferred configuration for two people who really want to be immersed in their own little corners.

What makes the H-BOX distinctive, however, are the seats themselves. Where most designs would feature reclining seats that seem to offer the ultimate comfort, these surround the passenger from almost all sides except the front. In other words, it boxes them in, shielding them from the other person in the vehicle while still giving them a clear view of their surroundings. Admittedly, it doesn’t look like the most comfortable design, though it wouldn’t be impossible to have the seat move forward and the backrest lean backward for that same reclining effect.

Then again, the purpose of this self-driving vehicle is to quickly get commuters to their destinations with minimum fuss and perhaps minimum interactions. At the same time, however, the interior of the vehicle still offers a convenient and advanced experience complete with a display that wraps around the interior of the cabin. It does seem to cater to a very niche audience, a generation that might no longer even be around by the time self-driving cars fully take root, but it could offer a more solitary experience for people who prefer to travel in peace and quiet.

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Self-driving car concept is a hotel-like sleeping pod on wheels

Posted on 29/03/2024 by JC Torres

Autonomous vehicles are still a somewhat controversial topic these days, but even detractors and critics will begrudgingly admit that it is the inevitable future. Given a foolproof and safe implementation, it opens up plenty of opportunities for people to do more during their travels, especially over very long distances. They can be more productive with work, spend more quality time with family, or simply get a good night’s sleep in transit. The latter isn’t exactly comfortable to do with today’s car designs, but that’s only if you don’t let go of current conventions and limitations. This design concept for a mobile sleeping pod, in contrast, pulls out all the stops and demonstrates what’s possible with the right technologies, the right design, and especially the right shape.

Designer: Peter Stulz

When viewed from its profile, the Swift Pod looks more like a gigantic motorcycle, a vehicle that stands on two wheels only. It’s definitely not your regular motorbike, even disregarding the significantly larger size, because it looks more like a cross between a bike and a car from the way it has a cabin instead of just a seat. When viewed from the top, however, the vehicle is revealed to actually run on three wheels, forming an odd triangle shape instead of a typical box you’d expect from cars.

The choice of the shape isn’t for appearance’s sake, though, but was made to maximize available space inside while minimizing the vehicle’s size. After all, the Swift Pod is designed to have two adult-sized beds inside, one on each side of the triangle, in addition to two chairs, amenities, and, of course, the vehicle’s actual hardware and components. The concept, after all, is for a mode of transportation that will let you sleep through your journey, at least if you want to. There’s plenty of space for two people to do anything, including working if necessary.

The concept was inspired by how some people are able to get a decent amount of sleep on trains and planes, and that’s without a comfortable bed or other conveniences. With Swift Pod, you not only have a comfortable place to recline but also an entertainment system, snacks and beverages, and plenty of storage for your belongings. What it doesn’t have room for is a human or physical driver.

The Swift Pod concept only works if autonomous driving has reached a point where one can really entrust their safety to these invisible drivers. The design envisions an extremely smart self-driving vehicle that, after booking a ride like a taxi, would be able to determine the best path toward your destination and navigate the roads safely. While the default is to simply go from point A to point B in one go, the system also has room for stop-over breaks where you can get off, eat some heavier meals, and freshen up before you take the next leg of your journey in the comfort of a bed.

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The Polestar Cladrus Concept runs partially on solar power, making it the company’s cleanest car yet

Posted on 18/07/2022 by Sarang Sheth

Borrowing from the LightYear One EV’s framework, the Polestar Cladrus concept car comes with transparent solar panels built into its roof, which feed energy to the car’s graphene-based battery and body panel. If that wasn’t cutting-edge enough, the car’s also been envisioned with level 5 autonomy, thanks to the presence of a Waymo-esque sensor hub on the front of the roof.

Designer: Harshul Verma

The Cladrus embodies everything Polestar stands for. It’s cutting-edge, runs on an electrical grid, puts drivers in the lap of luxury, and boasts of a Scandinavian design language that gives the car its signature clean aesthetic. The car also details out the partnership agreement between Polestar and Waymo by delivering something that looks rather palpable.

The name Cladrus comes from the mythical Greek bird Caladrius, known for its healing and regenerative powers. The name in the context of the car is a hat-tip to Polestar’s global mission of championing sustainability by recycling parts of its automobiles. The company’s recent car, the Precept, was hailed for creating a recycling system for aluminum, and also for also using 100% recycled plastic to weave the yarn used inside the car’s interiors. Cladrus, even though a concept, champions that attitude too by hinting at the use of recycled metals and plastics in the entire car.

The entire automobile, from front to back and top to bottom, is an absolute visual treat to look at. Designer Harshul Verma used simple, edgy forms to create the car’s delicate balance and dynamic volumes. The Cladrus comes with a sprawling sun-roof that goes from front all the way to the back. Given that there’s no traditional driver or cockpit, transparency and visibility weren’t a pressing issue. Instead, the car provides a panoramic roof that illuminates the interiors, and ditches the windows (and even doors) altogether to create a sense of privacy.

How does one enter a car without doors? Well, the entire roof pops open from the back, creating a ramp that leads right into the Cladrus’ spacious interiors. The Cladrus comfortably seats 4, and can fit as many as 5 passengers within. A sofa and two armchairs create a wonderful luxurious in-car experience – an experience that’s only further heightened by the Cladrus’ wood-panel flooring.

Verma posits that his concept hopes to redefine EVs. Not only does the Polestar Cladrus run (at least supplementally) on solar power, but the power is supplied to graphene-based batteries instead of the traditional lithium-ion ones. Since graphene can be used as a supercapacitor, the solar panels end up being much more efficient, and Verma mentions that graphene enables the solar panels to directly power the car, instead of routing it through the battery. Any extra energy that isn’t immediately used by the car gets stored in its battery, allowing Cladrus to run at night too. The designer doesn’t mention if there’s an ability to charge the car traditionally, but considering Polestar comes from Sweden which sees a dramatic decrease in solar energy during the winters, one would expect the concept car to have some sort of failsafe!

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This Apple Car concept is a 360-degree maneuverable, self-driving, two-seater for the future

Posted on 17/01/2022 by Gaurav Sood

When you think about it, driving solo or even with one other passenger in a five-seater car is a wasteful thing! Many may beg to differ, but I think the purpose is defied when a vehicle capable of ferrying up to five people has just one or two alighting at the car park. That’s the primary reason I may for a minute visualize streets filled with two-seaters.

An Apple Car in that domain is slightly an overboard assumption but then we have been through a number of Apple Car concepts in the past, and all of them have some level of irrationality. Filling the gap between imagination and reality these are the best of what we know the Apple Car would be but the Apple Autonomous concept has a different idea. The two-seat pod for Apple foresees a future where such vehicles will be self-driving from pillar to post carrying and dropping off passengers and quietly moving back to their defined parking spot like a decent Roomba in the house.

The thought of riding an Apple Car is in itself appealing, but even if we believe all the hype and buildup around the possibility of an autonomous electric Apple Car, we are not going to get to ride one before 2028 at least. The car is expected to be in a very early stage of the development cycle and there are no images to show how it would be, so concepts like the Apple Autonomous piques interest.

This 360-degree movable autonomous car has a door that flings open to reveal a cocoon-like cockpit with two comfortable seats. Since it is designed from Apple’s perspective, it has a nice sheen and a clean finish. The renders suggest the nice reclining structure of the pod will house occupants comfortably whether on the city street or on the expressway.

Designer: Devanga Borah

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Polestar’s autonomous mobility design transforms between two modes for urban driving and the open road!

Posted on 26/12/2021 by Shawn McNulty-Kowal

Polestar Röna is an autonomous mobility concept that transforms between two modes for urban driving and the open road.

While travel restrictions have put a pause on all of our wanderlust-driven tendencies, the idea of uninhibited traveling has never felt more exciting. Getting closer than ever to a tomorrow where we avoid traffic in flying cars and commute to work in jetpacks, designers have been envisioning travel concepts that redefine our ideas of what the future of mobility might look like.

German designer Yida Li contributed his own travel concept called Polestar Röna, an autonomous automobile that transforms between two modes according to different travel needs.

Li calls Polestar Röna’s first mode “Urban Mode,” which finds the automobile in its upright, slim position to be as compact as possible to swerve through packed city streets. In Urban Mode, Polestar Röna accommodates two travelers, leaving enough room for luggage and plenty of leg space. Li also equipped Polestar Röna with a modular build that allows other automobiles to stack on top of cabins, creating a sort of vertical caterpillar of Polestar Rönas.

In Polestar Röna’s “Adventure Mode,” Li turned the vehicle 90-degrees and gave the automobile less ground clearance to resemble the build of conventional sports cars, encouraging drivers to move fast and freely. In this mode, additional automobiles can connect to Polestar Röna like train carts.

Ideal for open, country roads, Polestar Röna’s adventure mode makes the perfect travel companion for long, cross-country road trips. Li also equipped Polestar Röna drivers with the option of autonomous or manual driving modes, optimizing the sense of freedom even in the future of AI-controlled cars.

Designer: Yida Li

Following multiple ideations, Li settled on Polestar Röna’s final form.

Following a period of sketching, Li developed CAD models of Polestar Röna.

In Adventure Mode, Polestar Röna reveals a small ground clearance reminiscent of a sports car.

In both Urban and Adventure Mode, Polestar Röna leaves enough room for luggage. Its design makes Polestar Röna the future of modular mobility.

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This Apple SUV is like the iPhone 12 Pro Max of smart electric vehicles!

Posted on 27/04/2021 by Sarang Sheth

Over the past decade, Apple has cultivated a reputation of being sleek, slim, and petite. Its iPhones are thinner than a centimeter, the iPads and MacBooks are literally slim enough to slip into manila envelopes, and the new iMac is probably the slimmest desktop PC ever made. With that image in mind, it’s perfectly natural to imagine that the Apple Car would echo those very attributes. Close your eyes and think of an “Apple Car” and a sedan should naturally come to your mind. Concept Designer Jan Peisert feels differently. Meet the Apple One, a sophisticated looking SUV created in the image of the company behind the iPhone.

Peisert’s Concept One embodies all the good aspects of Apple (and a few unsavory ones) into a design that’s meant for the entire family. It’s a luxury car, but it isn’t a sedan. Instead, the Apple One is a one-for-all sort of SUV that accommodates 4 or more people pretty spaciously. Its proportions (and especially that headlight) feel slightly like a cross between the Tesla Cybertruck and the Rivian SUV. The design is mildly angular but doesn’t come with any edgy surfaces or straight lines. Instead, everything curves rather organically… a feature also seen in the continuous curves found on Apple products. Speaking of Apple products (and also of unsavory aspects), the Apple One sports that infamous cheesegrater grille on the front. One could argue that an electric SUV wouldn’t need a grille, but Peisert probably took a creative call with that one there. Moreover, who knows, maybe an air intake would help keep the car’s CPU cool?

Aside from the illuminated logo on the front (something that’s sort of becoming a trend with fan-made Apple car concepts), the car comes with rather slick headlights and taillights. The linear lights, apart from illuminating the road, double as indicators too, with the headlight glowing entirely on the left or right to indicate intention, while the vertical channels on the taillight turning orange. The Apple One even has indicators built into the doors (at the seam between the door and window) that allow everyone to know when the car’s about to make a turn. A third break-light on the back lets people behind the Apple One know when the car’s slowing down or stopping.

The Apple One is detailed out in two variants – silver and space-gray. Both variants are practically identical in physical appearance, although the silver car comes with wooden trims on the front and back, while the space-gray sports carbon fiber trims instead… sort of like a Pro version.

There aren’t any details on the interiors (after all this is digital art and not a real 3D concept), although Peisert’s highlighted a few external features that are pretty intriguing. For instance, the slick headlights aren’t the only road-illuminating feature on the front. The Apple One also comes with laser headlights that sit on either extremes of the Apple logo. These headlights project powerful spotlights on the road, allowing you to see in low-light conditions as you drive. The car even comes with retractable side-view cameras, gesture-controlled butterfly doors and trunk, and a wireless-charging base that also debuted in Emre Husmen’s Apple Car concept. While the Apple One concept doesn’t detail any technical features, it’s safe to say an Apple car would also tie in with the ecosystem, having the ability to unlock or hit ignition on the iPhone. The car would probably run on a self-driving AI that uses the strong catalog of sensors that Apple’s designed and built into its product. It’s safe to say the car would also help Apple Maps strengthen and grow its user base over the years, and if the smart car responds to commands like “Hey Siri, take me to Starbucks”, Apple has a clear winner on its hands!

Designer: Jan Peisert

The Canoo is a car-membership you can use when you need and pause when you don’t

Posted on 06/04/2020 by Sarang Sheth

The Canoo is a culmination of a lot of good ideas and technologies, combined into something that creates a futuristic system around car ownership. With the Canoo, you don’t own a car, you own the right to a car. It’s as simple as not owning a tennis court but owning a membership pass that gets you access to one.

Announcing a strategic partnership with Hyundai, EV Startup Canoo is looking at revolutionizing the future with a car membership service that lets you own a car when you need one, and ‘pause’ your ownership when you don’t need one. Designed as a self-driving EV that can be summoned on command, Canoo’s membership service gives car manufacturers the ability to allow a small number of cars serve a wide variety of masters, while giving consumers the ability to own a car only when it’s convenient, and surrender it when it isn’t needed. This offsets a consumer’s need to pay a hefty lump sum of money for ownership and worry about things like maintenance, insurance, garage space, etc. The EV comes with a partner app that lets you own a car for a few months, conveniently giving it up if you’re shifting towns, going on a holiday, or say if you’re under a government-mandated lockdown and you don’t need your car for a month. Think of it as an Uber, but A. it’s a monthly membership, not a trip-based rental, and B. It’s YOUR car, but just under a more consumer-friendly business model.

Speaking of model (and this really isn’t my best segue), the Canoo’s design resembles a modern take on the VW Microbus, with the company’s branding manifesting itself in the design of the headlamps and taillamps. The Canoo is even fitted with seven cameras, five radars, and 12 ultrasonic sensors that help it autonomously drive, although there’s a driver’s seat and steering wheel on the inside should you choose to commandeer the vehicle. Aside from its novel business model, the Canoo’s most interesting feature is its interiors, which features a C-shaped bench at the back, that turns the car into less of a bus/coach and more of a social space. “All seating is designed to feel more like furniture”, says Richard Kim, Design Head at Canoo. “The rear seats are more like a sofa to lounge on than a cramped and segmented backseat, and the front takes inspiration from mid-century modern chairs.” Its autonomous nature and roomy interiors reinforce a steady direction that most electric cars have been taking over the past few years, of turning the car itself into an extension of a living room. Canoo’s interesting subscription-based ownership business model definitely brings a fair bit of disruption to the car industry, giving customers the freedom to own the car only when they really need it, and pause their ownership when they don’t. It’s a little like an exclusive club… except this one drives on four wheels and can transport you as far as 250 miles on a full battery!

Designers: Richard Kim & Canoo Design Team

Jaguar Land Rover’s Project Vector is a self-driving pod that focuses on zero emissions/accidents

Posted on 19/02/2020 by Sarang Sheth

Joining the ranks of companies like Toyota, Honda, Volvo, Volkswagen, and many more, Jaguar Land Rover has unveiled its hitherto secret Project Vector, a self-driving pod that aims to usher the company into the future of mobility and achieve its goal of reaching Destination Zero. What is Destination Zero, you ask? “Jaguar Land Rover’s Destination Zero mission is an ambition to make societies safer and healthier, and the environment cleaner. Delivered through relentless innovation, the company’s focus is on achieving a future of zero emissions, zero accidents, and zero congestion – through its products, services and across its facilities”, says the JLR team behind Project Vector.

The Vector is a boxy, multi-use electric pod with self-driving capabilities. Developed at the Warwick University’s National Automotive Innovation Centre (NAIC), CEO of Jaguar Land Rover, Sir Ralf Speth revealed that the project’s been in development for several years, and is all set for on-road trials in Coventry next year.

The Project Vector pod offers autonomous driving as an option, rather than be fully self-driving. This means the pod still comes with a traditional driver’s seat and steering wheel, but it offers internal flexibility, allowing the front seats to rotate 180° and face inwards, creating a more social environment. This allows the Vector to be used in a variety of formats with multiple seating configurations, for private, shared, or even commercial use. The compact vehicle measures a mere 4 meters in length and comes with an all-new “skateboard” platform that houses all the electronics and mechanics in a pallette right below the car. This frees the upper half of the car up, allowing for a much more spacious interior, with large, panoramic glass panels on the front and back, and french-window-style all-glass sliding doors on either side that allow you to embark and disembark with ease.

This isn’t JLR’s first project in the autonomous sector. The company revealed a quirky conceptual pod with ‘virtual eyes’ that could help communicate the car’s intent with pedestrians and nearby drivers!

Designers: Jaguar Land Rover & Warwick University’s National Automotive Innovation Centre

Toyota will offer rides in self-driving cars at the Tokyo Olympics

Posted on 24/10/2019 by Engadget RSS Feed

Toyota has revealed details of an upcoming public test for its level-4 automated vehicle and "Chauffeur" self-driving tech, and sports fans headed to Tokyo next year for the Olympic Games will have the chance to try it out. The automaker is offering...

Jaguar Land Rover Puts Googly Eyes on Autonomous Test Vehicle Not Named Mater

Posted on 29/08/2018 by Shane McGlaun

Autonomous cars are coming no matter what we all think or want. These rides will one day drive us around without us having to do anything but sit in the seats and stare blankly at our smartphones. The problem, at least according to Jaguar Land Rover, is that pedestrians and cyclists won’t have a driver to look in the eyes before crossing in front of the car, which could mean they don’t know if its safe to cross.

The answer, according to the British automaker is to put beady little eyes on the front of autonomous cars that look at the pedestrian or cyclist. The idea is that with the fake eyes looking you in the eyes more trust will be created. The video shows a creepy autonomous pod eyeing cars and people crossing the road.

The eyes on the modified Aurrigo autonomous vehicle follow the woman in the crosswalk, going full Sir Mix-a-Lot and checking out the motor in the back of her Honda. Yep, eyes on cars are weird. Can’t we just use lights, guys? Turn signals are yellow, brake lights are red, backup lights are white, and pick a color for “I see you, walk” for autonomous cars. I’ll even get you started – how about green?

At least give your pod with eyeballs a tow hook and redneck voice.

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