Hasta La Ideas

News: students at the Eindhoven University of Technology have unveiled what they claim to be the world’s first solar-powered family car.

Called Stella, and resembling a squashed, wingless aeroplane, the vehicle can seat four people and can travel up to 600 kilometres, powered by solar panels mounted on the roof.

The vehicle has been developed to take part in the new Cruiser Class category of the World Solar Challenge – a biannual 3,000km race race through the Australian outback from Darwin to Adelaide.

This new category will be introduced for the first time at this year’s event, taking place from 6-13 October, to reflect the growing interest in commercially viable solar cars.

Unlike the other categories, where speed is the main concern, the Cruiser Class is judged on criteria including comfort and usability. Cruiser Class vehicles must also carry a passenger as well as a driver.

“The design of the car of the future has to meet the needs of modern consumers,” says Solar Team Eindhoven, which is based at Eindhoven University of Technology. “The car must be capable of transporting a family from the Netherlands to France in one day, it needs to be suitable for the daily commute to work, and it needs to achieve all this in comfort.”

“Since the Solar Team Eindhoven wants to contribute to the development of a car of the future, the design demands more than just a focus on speed,” the team adds. “Comfort, ease of use, and feasibility are all key terms.”

The carbon and aluminium car features a buttonless, touchscreen dashboard and a responsive steering wheel that expands or contracts according to your speed.

Solar panels on the car’s roof will generate around half the energy it requires, with the remaining power coming from solar recharging stations.

Solar Team Eindhoven’s website provides more details of the World Solar Challenge race. “A large part of the energy to be used will be collected by solar cells as we travel,” it says. “During the race, there are only three opportunities to recharge the relatively small battery, which means the car has to be able to independently drive a minimum of 750 kilometers on electric energy. Besides the issue of energy and its management, navigation, safety and support will be essential.

“Once the race starts in Darwin, the teams are permitted to drive until 5.00 p.m. in the afternoon. After that, they have to set up camp in the outback and be ready to leave again at 8.00 a.m. The teams must be completely self reliant and must reach all seven checkpoints.”

Photos are by Bart van Overbeeke/TU Eindhoven.

Here’s some info from Eindhoven University of Technology:

TU/e student team unveils world’s first solar-powered family car

Solar Team Eindhoven starts World Solar Challenge in Australia with four-seater family car

The Solar Team Eindhoven (STE) of Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) presented the world’s first solar-powered family car today. ‘Stella’ is the first ‘energy-positive car’ with room for four people, a trunk, intuitive steering and a range of 600 kilometers. This is the car being entered by the student team in the Cruiser class of the World Solar Challenge that starts in Australia in October 2013.

A car that produces electricity

The solar cells of ‘Stella’- Latin for star and also a reference to the family character of the car – generate more electricity on average than the car uses and that means the surplus electricity can be returned to the power grid, thereby making the car ‘energy-positive’.

The car of the future

Solar Team Eindhoven has set itself the goal of developing the car of the future. By combining aerodynamic design with lightweight materials like carbon and aluminum, a very fuel-efficient car has been designed, which also has ingenious applications like a LED strip and touchscreen that make all the buttons and knobs we know today superfluous. Intuitive driving is enabled by a steering wheel that expands or contracts when you are driving too fast or too slowly. STE will have the car officially certified for road use to prove that this really is a fully-fledged car.

World Solar Challenge

University teams from all over the world will be competing in a 3,000 km long race through the Australian outback. Solar Team Eindhoven is taking part in the Cruiser class in which the emphasis lies on practical and user-friendly solar cars rather than on speed. The ‘solar race’ takes place from 6 to 13 October 2013. Back in the Netherlands there will be a tour of high schools to promote engineering and science in education.

The engineer of tomorrow

Thanks to Solar Team Eindhoven entry, TU/e is represented for the first time in the Solar World Challenge. A multidisciplinary team (with 22 students from six different TU/e departments) has spent a year on this project that involves challenges from the fields of energy and mobility. Cooperation with industry has given the students an opportunity to become familiar with top-notch entrepreneurship, thereby underlining TU/e’s vision of educating the engineer of tomorrow. TU/e professors prof.dr. Elena Lomonova and prof.dr.ir. Maarten Steinbuch are members of the steering group.

Eindhoven  University of Technology

Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) is a research-driven, design-oriented technology university with a strong international focus. The university was founded in 1956 and has around 7,200 students and 3,000 staff. TU/e is geared to the societal challenges posed in the areas of Energy, Health and Smart Mobility.

The post World’s first solar-powered family car
to race across Australia appeared first on Dezeen.

News: America’s largest bicycle sharing scheme will begin this month in New York City, with 6000 bikes available to rent from docking stations in Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn.

The scheme, dubbed Citi Bike after its multi-million-dollar sponsorship from Citibank, will invite commuters and tourists to take advantage of New York’s 700 miles of cycle lanes.

The May launch will see bikes placed in 330 docking stations across the city, spanning from 59th Street in Manhattan down to the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn.

City officials plan to eventually expand the scheme to 10,000 bikes and 600 docking stations across Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens.

Thousands of New Yorkers have already signed up as Citi Bike members, paying an annual fee of $95 for access to unlimited rides of 45 minutes.

Cyclists who don’t have a membership will be able to purchase a 24-hour pass for about $10, or a seven-day pass for $25, allowing an unlimited number of half-hour trips.

The three-speed aluminium-frame Citi Bike has front and rear LEDs that flash when the wheels are in motion and an adjustable seatpost to accommodate riders of different heights.

Both the bikes and docking stations are part of a system called Bixi, which was first developed by French Canadian designer Michel Dallaire as a cycle-share scheme for Montreal.

A Citi Bike app will also help cyclists to locate their nearest docking station, plan their route on a map and find local shops, services and restaurants.

The launch follows the successful roll-out of bike-share schemes in cities including London, Washington D.C., Paris and Barcelona, while Chicago and San Francisco are both preparing to launch their own schemes later this year.

French designer Philippe Starck recently unveiled a prototype bicycle crossed with a scooter for a free cycle scheme in Bordeaux, France.

Other city bikes we’ve featured include an folding electric bicycle by auto maker BMW and another folding bike with full-sized wheels – see all bicycles on Dezeen.

The post New York launches
bike-share scheme appeared first on Dezeen.

News: Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic passenger spacecraft broke the sound barrier during its first rocket-powered flight in California yesterday.

Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo was brought to an altitude of 14,000 metres before being released by its carrier craft over the Mojave Desert.

The pilots then rotated the spacecraft to a vertical position and ignited its rocket, which propelled it beyond the speed of sound and took it to almost 17,000 metres above ground.

“The first powered flight of Virgin Spaceship Enterprise was without any doubt our single most important flight test to date,” said Branson, the British entrepreneur who founded Virgin Galactic to be the world’s first commercial space travel company.

“Today’s supersonic success opens the way for a rapid expansion of the spaceship’s powered flight envelope, with a very realistic goal of full space flight by the year’s end,” he added.

SpaceShipTwo is designed to carry two pilots and six passengers on two-and-a-half-hour sub-orbital flights and was unveiled in 2009, a year after its carrier craft WhiteKnightTwo was unveiled – see all news about Virgin Galactic.

The Virgin Galactic terminal in New Mexico was designed by Foster + Partners, the British firm that recently announced proposals to 3D-printing buildings on the moon – see all news and stories about space.

Top image is by Marscientific.com and Clay Center Observatory.

The post Virgin Galactic passenger spacecraft
completes first rocket-powered flight appeared first on Dezeen.

French architect Jean-Marie Massaud has collaborated with auto maker Toyota to create an “anti-crisis” concept car with a retractable windscreen, plastic bodywork and a bamboo bonnet (+ slideshow).

Massaud and Toyota designed the electric car to tackle current economical and environmental crises by using cheap, lightweight materials that reduce the vehicle’s energy consumption.

A tubular aluminium structure would support recyclable polypropelene body panels, which could be customised with different textures, patterns and colours. Strips of bamboo that wrap around the dashboard would extend out to form the bonnet and also cover the remaining horizontal surfaces, including the floor and roof.

All the windows, including the windscreen, would be retractable so passengers could feel the breeze from every angle. The rear bench could fold down and tuck under the front seat when not needed, and would be removable for use outside the vehicle.

Luggage could be stored on the roof under a fold-out neoprene cover to create more space inside. Alternatively, the boot could fold out to make room for larger goods.

A screen above the steering wheel would display vehicle speed, battery charge, journey information and navigation instructions provided via a smartphone, which could be mounted below and used to control music and temperature.

Heating and air conditioning would be delivered by a low-energy air pump and electric seat heaters to minimise power consumption. An in-wheel motor system means the car would be operable in two or four-wheel drive.

Other recent concept car include Ross Lovegrove’s blue vehicle for Renault with a glass roof covered in LED patterns and Pininfarina’s two-seater model without a windshield. See more car design »

Read on for more information from Toyota:

Toyota presents the ME.WE Concept

Working with Toyota since 2011, Massaud has sought to create an “anti-crisis” car that addresses contemporary human, economic and environmental challenges, bringing his independent vision and experience from outside the motor industry.

The thinking behind the concept

Massaud and Toyota defined three primary aims for the concept: –

Pertinence – their vision for the car is passionate but considered. The concept should be adaptable to a wide variety of lifestyles as well as displaying high quality and innovation.

Synthesis – a move away from motor industry tradition to remove excess and suggest a new way of responding to people’s behaviour and expectations. The concept should propose an alternative synthesis based on personal choices about vehicle architecture, lower running costs and the way the vehicle will be used.

Modernity – challenge conventions and seek change in designing a car that goes beyond just looking good through the experience it offers, its intelligent solutions and its ability to exceed the needs of the owner. This should be a car that reflects the values of forward-thinking people rather than simply their social status.

ED2 and Massaud combined their expertise to produce a car that reflects a quest for change in personal mobility. While cars have increasingly become subject to restrictions, they have put road users – drivers and pedestrians – at the heart of their thinking. The focus is on the desire for freedom, pleasure, emotion and the ability to travel free from constraints, while at the same time addressing people’s sense of personal responsibility and commitment to good citizenship.

The result is car that takes a modern, global view of travel and forms part of a wider view on how to adapt to the environmental challenges that will shape the future of personal mobility. It is a no-extras package, conceived as an “anti-excess” vehicle. In short, the Toyota ME.WE represents the transition from the culture of “more” to the culture of “better”.

The vehicle

ME.WE seeks to resolve a number of real-life contradictions, not through reinvention of what a car is, but by taking a different approach that is simpler, more appropriate and realistic – an alternative to cars that are about “passion and status”. The goal was do more and create better while using less. By reducing the pool of resources and constraints, it was possible to increase capability, quality and
pleasure.

Light and resilient: ME.WE has a tubular aluminium structure, on to which light and hard-wearing polypropylene panels are fitted.

Individual and standard: the moulded panels are made using a cost-efficient standard production system, but they are easy to personalise.

Freedom and responsibility: ME.WE is a pick-up, convertible, off-roader and small city car in one. It appeals to a wide range of users, and has a small eco-footprint thanks to its light weight and the materials used in its construction.

ME and WE: the concept’s name expresses its simultaneous concern for personal well-being (ME) and that of others (WE). ME.WE is electric-powered, using the same in-wheel motors as the Toyota i-ROAD, with batteries located under the floor, as in the iQ EV. With none of the traditional packaging restraints associated with conventional powertrains, the entire interior could be devoted to the vehicle’s occupants and luggage.

The lightweight construction using aluminium and polypropylene panels helps keep the car’s weight down to a target 750kg, about 20 per cent less than a conventional steel-built supermini. The body panels, which are 100 per cent recyclable, weight just 14kg. Bamboo is used in the construction of the floor and for the cabin’s horizontal surfaces, chosen both for being a renewable resource and aesthetically pleasing. ME.WE is easy to keep clean with a simple wash, inside and out.

ME.WE is an intelligent response to the ecological threats posed by mass production and the increasing number of cars on the world’s roads, as it is made from materials that help reduce the energy it consumes and the CO2 and harmful emissions it produces.

The simplicity of its design is matched by it ease of use. The in-wheel motor system means it can be operated in two or four-wheel drive, allowing it to tackle rougher terrain than a traditional car, and without the weight penalty of a 4×4 transmission system.

In the cabin priority is given to driver and passengers, so luggage can be carried on the roof beneath a fold-out, weatherproof neoprene cover. However, the rear luggage space can be extended into a platform like that found in a pick-up. The rear bench seat is mounted on floor rails and when not in use can be folded and stored beneath the front seat. It can also be removed altogether and even used for ad-hoc picnic seating.

The simplicity of the design is also evident in the instrumentation, which comprises a single screen above the steering wheel which displays vehicle speed, battery charge, journey information and navigation instructions, delivered via a smartphone. The phone itself is mounted below the screen so the driver can personalise the cabin environment with music and other apps, as well as controlling on-board temperature.

The heating and air conditioning are delivered by a low-energy air pump and electric seat heaters to minimise power consumption. And to achieve a cabriolet-like open air feel, all the windows can be opened, even the windscreen.

The post ME.WE concept car by Jean-Marie Massaud
for Toyota appeared first on Dezeen.

News: a London cycling organisation has come up with a concept for a lorry with no blindspot to reduce the number of cyclists killed in collisions.

The Safer Urban Lorry would have a lower cab and larger windows than most trucks, allowing the driver to spot cyclists and pedestrians in the immediate vicinity of the vehicle.

With the additional help of a 360 degree camera, the design would eliminate the driver’s blindspot and reduce the likelihood of the lorry crushing a cyclist as it makes a left turn – the cause of most fatal cycling collisions in London.

Reducing the gap between the underside of the lorry and the ground would also help to push cyclists away in the event of a collision, rather than dragging them underneath the wheels.

According to the London Cycling Campaign, the organisation behind the design, lorries make up 5% of the traffic in Greater London but are involved in half the cyclist deaths. A large proportion of pedestrian fatalities in cities also involve lorries.

We recently featured a bollard with a foot rest and handle to help cyclists keep their balance at traffic lights and magnetic bicycle lights that turn on as soon when they touch the steel frame – see all cycling design.

We’ve also featured lots of bikes on Dezeen, such as Philippe Starck’s scooter-like design for a free cycle scheme in Bordeaux and a conceptual see-through bike frame  – see all bicycles.

The post Lorry redesigned to
prevent cyclist deaths appeared first on Dezeen.