By Jamie Forbes, Enterprise Connectivity Manager, Ford Motor Company
At Ford, we’re working to build a better world where every person is free to pursue their dreams. Developing innovative mobility solutions for the future will require building a new generation of engineers, designers and creatives minds. That is why we teamed up with Clemson University’s Deep Orange automotive engineering program — a two-year master’s program where students design and build fully-functional concept vehicles from the ground up.
For the program’s tenth iteration, called Deep Orange 10, the students designed the University’s first self-driving electric vehicle prototype for passengers. Throughout the project, Ford’s role was to guide and advise students. I am excited to share the results of the student’s hard work: a self-driving vehicle experience with human-centered design at the forefront.
Built from the ground up: To bring this autonomous concept vehicle to life, the students started from the ground up to imagine use cases for self-driving vehicles. Using a human-centered design lens, the students focused on: giving time back to families during a commute or while traveling; connecting college students who might not have a vehicle; and maximizing productivity for business professionals on the go. Driven by these focused customer benefits, the final design features a vehicle experience focused on passenger comfort and intuitive controls.
·Spacious ride: For use as a personal vehicle, the interior feels like a living room on wheels, with seats facing each other, step-over and sliding swing-out doors for maximum accessibility. The team also envisioned a semi-transparent display screen on the windshield to show navigation and entertainment options.
· Touchless experience: With intuitive controls like voice and gesture commands, a rider can direct the vehicle to make a decision. For example, by pointing to a parking space or by voicing a direction, the car could self-navigate to the indicated destination. This could be extremely helpful in a post-COVID world, minimizing contact with high touch surfaces.
· Passenger comfort: The team also wanted to gauge passenger comfort via wearable devices that detects any passenger discomfort and modifies the car’s driving behavior such as speed and driving style to mitigate discomfort for things like motion sickness.
While Clemson students were responsible for designing the vehicle and creating an innovative user experience for a rider, an additional team of students from the Transportation Design Department at College for Creative Studies (CCS) in Detroit were key to bringing the self-driving concept vehicle design to life from the interior to the exterior including the silhouette, face-to-face seating concept, innovative graphics and user experience. Previously, we shared the initial design sketches of the prototype generated by CCS students: Hyunhong Jo, Chris Kim and Steven Lee, who is now a Ford employee. Once the digital creative design of the concept vehicle was complete, the student teams worked together with Ford to take the vehicle from digital to physical reality, including enabling the vehicle with the capability to drive autonomously within a small defined area.
Strength of the automotive partnership: Deep Orange is a sought-after program for students because it provides them with the hands-on experience of taking a car from concept to reality. Students are free to pursue their creativity and vision for the future of the automotive industry while receiving feedback and guidance from an automaker like Ford. It is a powerful learning experience for a budding engineer. Working with students doesn’t just help prepare them for a successful career in the industry — it also keeps Ford at the forefront of cutting-edge research and creative thinking. This project also held special significance for our Ford team as the employees advising the students were Clemson alumni from previous Deep Orange projects.
Nurturing the talent of tomorrow: Since hiring our first Clemson Deep Orange alumni, we’ve had great success bringing graduates and undergraduates from the University into the Ford family. Today, we employ more than 50 graduates of Clemson’s Automotive Engineering program, half of whom participated in the Deep Orange program. Out of the Deep Orange 10 team, five found their home at Ford following graduation.
First-Look at the Design: From their early designs to the finished prototype, these students brought new focus and passion with a real-world project. Congratulations to this outstanding cohort of engineers. We truly will see a brighter, better transportation future, because of passionate, skilled engineers like the Deep Orange 10 class. Clemson University’s first autonomous vehicle prototype is now on display at the Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport, if you are in the Greenville, South Carolina, please take a look!