[V.Narayan]

Our first generation of electric cars still look like a modern ICE car from the outside. Their configuration is still identical to the proven ICE car layout - bonnet in front, cabin in centre and luggage space at the back plus four wheels. I would expect that the next generation of electric cars that would start hitting the market by say 2035 or 2040 may look completely different and would by then have moved away from the ICE configurations and exploit the flexibility that electric propulsion will afford.

So a traditional ICE car looks something like this......please say nice things as that is my car.


A modern Tesla, all electric looks like this.


Or the soon to arrive in India Volvo Re-Charge looks very much like a Volvo we could relate to.


With evolution of materials & design philosophies I expect the cars being introduced in 2040 to look quite different and have layouts quite different from the ones we are familiar with today.

Allow me to elaborate by drawing parallels with what happened in the 1890s and 1900s the last time such a fundamental change in personal transportation took place.

In the 1890s a few years after the Benz Patent Motor Car a horse drawn carriage which still dominated looked like this with motive power in the front, driver seated high in the front centre & high open carriage for the passengers. Why were the wheels so big and the passenger cabin placed so high? - to match the leg and shoulder height of the horse to ensure the bridle etc were at a comfortable height and angle for the animal.


Then came the first pre-Edwardian cars in the 1890s that looked like this below. Note the similarity in layout and height, to the horse carriage, and overall configuration even though the change in motive power gave the flexibility to do something different. Design philosophies take time to evolve. The customers too take time to change so manufacturers of the horseless carriage did not want to add to the 'change' factor too much for their customers. The move from horse to horseless carriage went in stages.


Two decades after the Benz debut did cars start to look remotely like the ICE configurations we are used to today. The Ford T-Model, 1908 or thereabouts.


Similarly with improvements in battery energy density, improvements in solar panels, changes in materials we can expect the cars of 2040 to look quite different to what we are used to. Solar panels for re-charging as we drive and park will almost certainly make the scene. Changes in layout configurations that do away with the bonnet are likely. Those powerful looking bonnets with a phallic tone would go away, most probably. We could even have cars where the driver/owner could change the combination from a 5 seater with less range to a 2 seater with more range with modules that attach and detach.

The car of the near future will be - Electric + Autonomous + Connected + with Solar re-charge on the go. How long will it take to have an autonomous to cope with third world traffic conditions I don't know but it is likely that technology will force the change. Attitudes and manners take generations to change.

Some glimpses of what cars tomorrow could look like:

If you don't need a bonnet and don't need a driver.


For two or three.


4 or 6-seater with solar panel on the roof for continuous (weather permitting) re-charge in the day.


Autonomous sleeper car. Travelling Delhi to Varanasi. Get in, go to sleep, get up in Varanasi.

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the EV Section. Thanks for sharing!

[landcruiser123]

Thanks for sharing, V.Narayan! The future will certainly look interesting, although I feel full-self driving in at least 4-5 decades away. (I've friends working in companies in the Bay Area, so I know a the information)

Another interesting concept is the concept of limited autonomous driving using dedicated paths like in the Tunnels made by the boring company:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0vkv-XclUg

While all mainlines may not be tunnels, I'm sure existing road networks can be upgraded to self drive only lanes with proper access control. Drivers will have to drive the first & last mile.

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

Autonomous sleeper car. Travelling Delhi to Varanasi. Get in, go to sleep, get up in Varanasi.
Attachment 2092324

Maybe a time will come to re-open this thread: https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/what-...uld-i-buy.html (Which car should I buy?)

[charanreddy]

Very interesting take on automobile design. At the cusp of change , some familiarly helps make easy transition, I guess. Imagine a Lamborghini like design when the horse drawn cart was around. With time designs change to leverage full potential of the new technology. I remember a famous paragraph form Ayn Rand’s fountain head.

——

"Why do you want me to think that this is great architecture?" He pointed to the picture of the Parthenon.
"That," said the Dean, "is the Parthenon!"
"So it is."
"I haven't the time to waste on silly questions."
"All right, then." Roark got up, he took a long ruler from the desk, he walked to the picture. "Shall I tell you what's rotten about it?"
"It’s the Parthenon!" said the Dean.
"Yes, God damn it, the Parthenon."
The ruler struck the glass over the picture.
"Look," said Roark. "The famous flutings on the the famous columns—what are they there for? To hide the joints in the wood—when columns were made of wood, only these aren't, they're marble. The triglyphs, what are they? Wood. Wooden beams, the way they had to be laid when people began to build wooden shacks. Your Greeks took marble and they made copies of their wooden structures out of it, because others had done it that way. Then your masters of the Renaissance came along and made copies in plaster of copies in marble of copies in wood. Now here we are, making copies in steel and concrete of copies in plaster of copies in marble of copies in wood. Why?"

[CarBot]

On a lighter note in near future, we might even see this

[Napalm]

Originally Posted by landcruiser123

I feel full-self driving in at least 4-5 decades away. (I've friends working in companies in the Bay Area, so I know a the information)

While all mainlines may not be tunnels, I'm sure existing road networks can be upgraded to self drive only lanes with proper access control. Drivers will have to drive the first & last mile.

I think the 4 to 5 decades timeline is extremely pessimistic and way, way off. Even if you consider only India. I feel 4 to 5 years is the max that we will need to come to full self driving(level 4-5 autonomy) in rest of the world and probably 1 decade in India(although that technology will not be allowed by the Indian govt in taxi sector here because it will cause immense job losses). And I am not talking about “self-drive-only” lanes with proper access-control, lane markings or tunnels here.

The only reason I say this is because of the success of the company called Tesla.(Tesla is reported to launch in India next year. It is just a matter of time.)

Other Companies like Google’s Waymo and GM’s Cruise-automation are working on such technologies where they rely heavily on geo- mapping of self-drive-only lanes with proper access control. They will be very limited in their usage.

But Tesla’s autonomous driving tech depends more on machine-learning & training their AI neural-net SW (through the billions of miles of real-world sensor data they get from all of their customer fleet of personal-vehicles on the road) which have all these HW sensors like 8 cameras, radar etc as standard(even if they don’t have the autonomous driving tech feature enabled in them).

Following are the autonomous driving tech that Tesla has in its cars TODAY :

1. Autopilot (works on less-congested streets, highways/freeways at higher speeds): This is like an extremely advanced version of “traffic-aware cruise-control”. This is available in Tesla cars since almost 6 years and has been improving continuously with the real world data that they get from their vehicle fleet. Needs driver supervision at all times. New features have been added like auto Lane-change, off-ramp to on-ramp etc. Latest version works on less-congested city-streets too. I think this is level 2 or higher autonomy. Doesn’t/can’t handle making a turn at traffic intersections(signals).

Example car owner video:

https://youtu.be/zd6bnhgJMCI

2. Smart summon (works in places like parking lots at low speeds): It’s the advanced version of summon feature. No driver needed to be seated in the vehicle. Part of level 3 autonomy.

Example car owner video:

https://youtu.be/bXc-jZk56DM

3. Full-Self-Driving (FSD) Beta feature (works on any Motorable road at any speed) : It was released in beta-version just a few months back and has been only released to extremely careful drivers(found from their history of autopilot usage and sentry mode). It has already improved a lot and is in its 7th beta version.
This is level 3 autonomy currently in beta-version currently, but it is intended as a level 4 & 5 autonomy when it is perfected and delivered finally to all Tesla cars.It can handle making a turn at traffic intersections(signals).

Just check out the videos. The centre screen(infotainment unit) in the car shows visualisations of what the AI engine (neural net) sees when it is driving autonomously. It’s freaking amazing.

Example car owner video:

https://youtu.be/MnyyIJ8jaLk

https://youtu.be/mTP7b6yAbXM

These autonomous driving features of Tesla have been reported to identify wild animals on lightly lit highways in pitch dark conditions, which a human could never do. Similarly they also identify things like pedestrians, pavements, garbage cans etc more accurately with every new(improved) version. Lastly also check out the sentry-mode feature on YouTube.

Tesla is the only company that has itself specifically designed a SOC computer for FSD feature in association with TSMC because they were not satisfied with the performance of the other Autonomous driving chips from NVidea and other companies(used by Waymo, cruise etc).

I am not trying to sound fan-boyish, but it is not an exaggeration when many car industry experts say that as of today, Tesla is atleast half a decade ahead of legacy carmaker’s like BMW, VW, Daimler, GM, Ford etc in self driving tech and this lead will widen more as we go ahead.

[TrackDay]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

please say nice things as that is my car.
Attachment 2092325

Definitely ! This is one of my favorite cars for being in a luxury segment as well as being super reliable.

I feel for now familiarity in designs can also be a factor for people to go the EV way. Look at the Nexon. It is gaining traction in the electric market due to the familiar design language.

While the Tesla might be a run away success, It is also to be noted that such giant scale EV operations were not active before. Also Tesla caught up on everyone who thought EV's would be delayed later. But I also wonder the BMW i range didn't click as much ?

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

Autonomous sleeper car. Travelling Delhi to Varanasi. Get in, go to sleep, get up in Varanasi.
Attachment 2092324

I don't think you will be allowed to sleep. You boss will make you "Work from Car" since you don't have to drive . Welcome to the future !

[RadixLecti]

I just listened to an excellent podcast episode about the self driving car future. I thought I'd share it since a substantial segment of the episode touches on the 'form factor' aspect of car design.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/6bH...Rh6a2byKu2Z5Lg

Sean Carroll (the host) is a physicist, but his podcast often delves into other areas. The guest, Jason Torchinsky, is not a Waymo or Tesla engineer, but the senior editor of Jalopnik.com.

This makes for an excellent listen, since he is not invested in selling the technology, and has clearly spent a lot of time considering the human aspects of the changes to come in the self-driving car future.

[Aditya]

Thanks to Ganesh Kakade for sending these images in. Heartfelt gratitude for sharing them with other enthusiasts via this Team-BHP page!

Hi,

As soon as I found this thread, many images of electric cars started appearing in my mind.

Yes, I would really love to see different shapes in electric cars, as the formula is very simple. Now a days, vehicle bodies on skateboard type structure are very famous. A few of my favourite vehicles are as follows.

1. Canoo (Company website - https://www.canoo.com)

Source- https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/c...icles-car-van/


Source- https://edition.cnn.com/2019/09/24/c...ion/index.html

This is the interior of the first model of Canoo.

The overall shape of this vehicle breaks the conventional criteria of car designs.

2. Canoo MPDV

Source- https://www.canoo.com/mpdv/

This is the side profile of the Canoo MPDV. Boxy!

3. Zoox Electric Car (Company Website - https://zoox.com)

This vehicle is fully autonomous.

Source- https://gadgets.ndtv.com/transportat...al-car-2338822

Exposed wheels look interesting.

Source- https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a3...nomous-shuttle

Zoox’s initial prototypes very truly interesting in the aesthetic department.

Source- https://www.bloomberg.com/news/featu...d-a-wild-pitch

4. Microlino (Company website https://microlino-car.com/en/microlino)

Source- https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/4/21...ke-price-specs

5. Citroen Ami

Source- https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/28/2...tal-buy-online

[quote]The Ami’s design is so frugal and effective, most panels are similar and replaceable. Design concepts of this car are very interesting to see.

Video link -[quote]
https://Youtu.be/uUEKtOGmpVI

6. Neuron Ev

Source- https://gearjunkie.com/neuron-ev-t-o...tility-vehicle

7. Sono Motors
This vehicle is very advanced in terms of recharging. It’s fitted with solar panels.

Source- https://www.electrive.com/2020/02/26...nancing-update

Interesting video here -

https://youtu.be/wLZKdkgB85k

8. Elf Electric Pedal Car

It’s a pedal car.

Source- https://electrek.co/2018/06/04/solar...enough-to-work

Interesting video here -

https://youtu.be/r_xDuHuk4_E

(Her channel is very informative for browsing.)

9. Kalashnikov concept

Reminds me of our beloved Premier 118 NE.

Source- https://www.forbes.com/sites/guymart...l-rival-tesla/

Here's another quirky electric vehicle I like.

It’s a 2-wheeler but the design is very interesting. The battery is placed inside the big tube. very simple design indeed!

Source- https://www.gp-award.com/en/produkte...-pocket-rocket

Thank you!

[SKC-auto]

The results are strong evidence of the fundamental shift in consumer attitudes in favour of environmentally friendly cars. The poll was carried out in November 2020 with over 2,000 respondents, 91% said ““no thanks”” to replacing their EVs with a petrol or diesel vehicle; and in stark contrast less than 1% were hankering for a return to fossil fuels. 9% said they were not sure.

The data overwhelmingly shows the positive impact of the EV experience on drivers who may have become accustomed to loud, inefficient, and dirty fossil fuel vehicles.

EV models which received the highest satisfaction scored included: the Volkswagen ID.3, Kia Niro Plug-in Hybrid, and BMW 3 Series saloon (all 100%); Tesla Model 3 (96%); Kia e-Niro (96%); and the Hyundai KONA electric (94%). Nearly all the models, including popular ones such as the Renault Zoe (92%) and Nissan Leaf (90%), also achieved high levels of driver commitment.

Source:
https://www.zap-map.com/new-survey-r...ont-look-back/

[AVIS]

I think an all-round focus on efficiency improvements is vital for EVs. A case in point is Aptera 3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aptera_3

Key features of this EV -
- Minimal weight by means of a simple, compact design and use of light weight components
- Low drag with a compact and aerodynamic design
- Efficient and innovative battery cooling mechanism, efficient power-train and electrical systems
- Embedded solar cells to contribute additional range. They claim "an additional 41 miles (66km) per day" through sunlight alone under ideal conditions. This should increase significantly under Indian conditions.

I am not a fan of three wheeled cars, though. An aerodynamic compact 4 wheeler should not sacrifice too much on efficiency.