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

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 futuristic mobile home comes with mechanical legs to traverse the remote terrain of alien planets

Encho Enchev’s futuristic mobile home concept traverses rough terrain on mechanical legs that bring the home and its residents to even the wildest and most remote destinations of tomorrow.

The future is mobile. In recent years, mobile home designs have changed the way we approach work, living, and travel. Working from home and travel restrictions have inspired many of us to take on a more mobile lifestyle, allowing us to work on the road and travel as we please.

Born out of this collective movement towards mobility, designers across the world have issued their own interpretations of mobile homes and workspaces. Looking ahead to a more futuristic concept of mobility, 3D visual artist Encho Enchev designed a mobile home propped up on mechanical legs that can traverse all kinds of terrain to bring residents to remote and treacherous destinations.

Contained within a cubic frame, Enchev’s mobile home blends the utopian, sci-fi design elements of retro years with futuristic transportation capabilities to create a familiar space that treads new territory.

Supported by a collection of mechanical legs, the mobile home can either remain uplifted, an elevated distance from the ground, or descend from its raised height to merge with the ground.

The mechanical legs are nimble and fortified by a 5cm layer of non-slippery rubber and two deployable spikes on the bottom of each leg, assuring each step the mobile home takes is bolted by some guaranteed friction. Enchev also equipped his mobile home with four deployable harpoons that provide additional support for the mobile home to remain in place even on rough terrain.

Inside, Enchev hoped to achieve a modern and high-tech layout through curved design elements and pops of colors against an otherwise white interior. Finding inspiration in the potential of future architecture, Enchev outfitted the mobile home’s windows with smart glass technology that would function like invisible blackout curtains.

Filled with plenty of household appliances like automated furniture and smart technology, Enchev’s mobile home is all about convenience at the end of the day. While the inside of Enchev’s mobile home is boiling over with futuristic technologies, the living space’s interior design screams the timeless utopian aesthetic that was born circa 1960, when The Jetsons and Star Trek seemed to think of everything the future might hold.

Designer: Encho Enchev

Throughout the home, Enchev incorporated smart technology to bring home into the future. 

Integrated storage space, water tanks, and power cells ensure residents can live off-grid comfortably in Enchev’s mobile home.

Enchev’s mobile home could be stationed anywhere in the world.

Propped up by mechanical legs, the futuristic mobile home can even rise between mountain gorges.

From the desert to the plains, from the mountains to the lakes, the futuristic mobile home redefines the mobile lifestyle.

The post This futuristic mobile home comes with mechanical legs to traverse the remote terrain of alien planets first appeared on Yanko Design.

This Polestar-inspired aircraft mobility design features a built-in greenhouse to resolve deforestation issues!

The Polestar Forest Air Mobility concept is an aircraft concept from Pan Ziheng that has its own greenhouse to work in an environmental solution for modern deforestation issues while bridging a human need for mobility with today’s COVID-19 health and safety concerns.

Social distancing is one of the many ‘new normals’ we’ve incorporated into our daily lives as a result of the pandemic. But while coffee lines enforce the six-foot rule, aircraft and public transportation services are now back to programmed scheduling, stuffing each vehicle wall-to-wall with passengers. To strike a balance between the natural need for mobility and travel with today’s health and social distancing concerns, Pan Ziheng developed a futuristic Forest Air Mobility concept that also attempts to tie in environmental solutions for modern deforestation issues.

Pan Ziheng’s Forest Air Mobility concept envisions separate capsules for two individual passengers aboard the aircraft. Each personal cabin is stationed far enough away from one another so that the aircraft’s passengers do not cross paths. Pan Ziheng felt inspired to conceptualize their Forest Air Mobility concept design after recognizing the parallels between humans comprising a society and trees forming a forest. Describing their concept design in their own words, Pan Ziheng says, “Just like trees, human beings need to live together to be a functional society just like forests. However, at the same time, we need our personal space. [My] forest concept wants to provide a solution to this problem: public air transportation where we can travel together yet can still have a personal space.”

Conceptualized around a forest called Polestar Forest, Pan Ziheng ideated that their aircraft would host a greenhouse that grows saplings to be planted in the Polestar Forest, enlarging its forested acreage and providing timber resources for the larger Polestar community. The carbon dioxide captured by the aircraft’s battery would filter through a carbon transfer tube to feed the plants inside the aircraft’s built-in greenhouse and store any excess. In time, the Polestar Forest would stand as an emblem for the Polestar community, representing core sustainable values.

Designer: Pan Ziheng

Each passenger’s vessel is kept at a safe distance from one another to ensure responsible social distancing between aircraft personnel.

A carbon dioxide transfer tube stores and converts carbon dioxide to feed the plant life inside the greenhouse. The vertical rise of the Polestar Forest Air Mobility Concept is futuristic in and of itself.

This autonomous shuttle bus reimagines last-mile commute with informative graphics and a minimal, transparent design





Modern architecture constantly reimagines what cities might look like in the future, but public transportation still lives in an era of antiquated buses and faulty subway trains. Weaving between smart office buildings and shiny skyscrapers in a packed bus from the ‘90s proves that public transportation could use some reimagining of its own. Designing Campus Shuttle as a mobility concept to connect busy drop-off/pick-up areas, student designers Kilian Wiesmann and Nils Achenbach aimed to rethink public transportation through a transparent and autonomous public bus.

The designers prioritized versatility and accessibility with Campus Shuttle to ensure a smooth ride for everyone. From the outside, wheelchair access is made available via a retractable ramp that bridges the edge of the curb with the shuttle entrance. Curated animations and LED signal lights communicate with other vehicles on the road through autonomous programming. Built from curved glass panels and an aluminum framework, Campus Shuttle is a fully transparent, four-wheeled vehicle.

Getting inside the Campus Shuttle is also as easy as unlocking your smartphone. Using proximity sensors located in the shuttle’s sliding doors, commuters are granted access to the shuttle by scanning their ticket’s barcode or by paying for a ticket through Google or Apple Pay. Retractable seats line the perimeter of Campus Shuttle’s interior space, offering flexibility and creating more space when necessary. Situated in the center of the vehicle, an interactive information hub helps commuters become familiar with the shuttle route and surrounding city.

Campus Shuttle is designed to carry commuters between high-traffic pick-up/drop-off areas throughout major cities, such as airports, campus and office buildings, and public markets. The designers explain,” Our trend research phase has shown a remarkable inefficiency of transport in big cities. Individual traffic takes up a lot of space. In addition, the number of passenger cars in Germany has grown relatively steadily by half a million vehicles annually over the past two decades, from 450 cars per 1,000 inhabitants in 1998 to 560 cars per 1,000 inhabitants in 2018.” Designed to bring public transportation out of the ’50s, Campus Shuttle boasts a futuristic, sleek profile.

In cooperation with Brose Mechatronics, Wiesmann and Achenbach conceptualized Campus Shuttle to be a city staple for the public transportation industry. Designed with five curved glass panels that surround aluminum beams, Campus Shuttle maintains a minimal look. When in motion, Campus Shuttle almost appears to hover above the ground, linking a vision of futuristic public transportation with contemporary architectural landscapes. Personally, I see it as a nightrider in the dark, hovering above the street in sleek lighting. Campus Shuttle’s low-rise build makes it appear to hover above the ground when in motion.

Campus Shuttle was built to be versatile and accessible, so the designers implemented the most cutting-edge smart technology into the shuttle’s autonomous design. Pre-programmed signal lights and wheelchair access ramps add Campus Shuttle’s overall safety factor. These design elements specifically focus on the local users, “The university consists of several remote buildings that can be challenging to reach by foot, especially for students and staff with disabilities. This is exactly the challenge we took on with our concept vehicle: Linking extensive areas like universities, company facilities, airports, and trade fairs.”

With a traditional interior bus design, Campus Shuttle is familiar enough for commuters to intuitively understand and the modernization of the design makes it more accessible, giving a win-win situation that is sure to be appreciated by all users!

Designers: Kilian Wiesmann & Nils Achenbach