Future Car Design Research Articles

Sales of delivery vehicles in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic

The sale of vehicles is an important element of their life cycle, which includes various stages, from design and production, through use, to recycling or disposal. Sales are an important step in this cycle because they influence how many vehicles reach the market and are put into consumer use. During the COVID-19 pandemic, vehicle sales have dropped significantly. Drastic declines in production during this period were the effect of restrictions that resulted in the closure of production plants. The article presents statistics on the sales of Mercedes-Benz delivery vehicles and the changes that took place during the pandemic. It also contains recommendations that mainly concern improving the effectiveness of vehicle sales in emergency situations. During the pandemic, the activities of many automotive industries were suspended and, additionally, vehicle traffic decreased, which resulted in a general decline in the production of components, parts, as well as future car designs. The aim of the article is to analyse the sales of Mercedes-Benz delivery vehicles and to assess the factors that influenced it in the analysed period.

Analysis of Biomechanics of Motor Vehicle Collisions for Passenger Vehicles: Implications or Passenger Vehicle Safety and Future Car Design Innovations

Journal of the American College of Surgeons 236(5):p S37-S38, May 2023. | DOI: 10.1097/01.XCS.0000932584.18172.fd

Analysis of Biomechanics of Motor Vehicle Collisions for Passenger Cars: Implications for Passenger Vehicle Safety and Future Car Design Innovations

IntroductionInvestigating biomechanics of injury patterns from motor vehicle collisions (MVCs) informs improvements in vehicle safety. This study aims to investigate two-vehicle MVCs involving a passenger car and specific injury patterns associated with sources of injury, collision biomechanics, vehicle properties, and patient outcomes. MethodsRetrospective cohort study conducted to evaluate the biomechanics of specific injury patterns seen in MVCs involving passenger cars using the Crash Injury Research Engineering Network database between the years 2005 and 2015. ResultsA total of 631 MVC cases were included from 2005 to 2015. The majority of cases involved injuries to the head or neck, the thorax, and the abdomen (80.5%). Head/neck injuries from the steering wheel were associated with significantly higher injury severity score compared to those from seatbelts (26.11 versus 18.28, P < 0.001) and airbags (26.11 versus 20.10, P = 0.006), as well as a >6-fold higher fatality rate (P = 0.019). Thoracic injuries caused by the center console were twice as likely to be fatal than those caused by the seatbelt (P = 0.09). ConclusionsOccupants suffering injuries to the head/neck, the thorax, and the abdomen had higher injury severity score and fatality rates compared to other body regions, demonstrating that manufacturing and safety guidelines should focus on minimizing these injury patterns. Head/neck injuries caused by the steering wheel were associated with worse outcomes compared to those caused by seatbelts and airbags, further emphasizing the benefits of these critical safety features. Integration of innovative safety features like center-mounted airbags may improve occupant safety.

Prospective Immersive Human-Machine Interface for Future Vehicles: Multiple Zones Turn the Full Windscreen Into a Head-Up Display

The physical bottleneck of optical design and the complexity associated with the human visual system (HVS) limits the true potential of the head-up display (HUD) for use in vehicles. A full windscreen of visual information feedback is required for driving safety, and its implementation to enhance the driving experience is one of the most significant challenges. We present an immersive augmented reality (AR) HUD concept to support future vehicle design following a human-centric design approach. The limited field of view of contemporary optical solutions can be overcome by multiple display elements tiled to utilize images over the entire windscreen and so create an immersive experience. The design takes important human factors into account and improves the operator's driving experience. Furthermore, the images are “distributed,” meaning that the physical interface generates the images via multiple optical apertures/image sources and displays these images according to HVS requirements. These configurations are tested in a laboratory environment with a replica of a real car interior and a prototype vehicle installed with distributed multiple HUD units. The proposed concept of an immersive human-machine interface (HMI) can be further extended in various forms to other parts of the vehicle interior, including surfaces and free space, which we envisage will take place in future car designs.

Transdisciplinary design approach based on driver's workload monitoring

Abstract Driving is a high-demanding task, related to human capacity, required performance and events occurring in the external environment. Mental workload depends on numerous factors: task difficulty, task complexity, level of traffic, additional activities required by the driving action or imposed by the driver, the contextual conditions, as well as the individual response to stress. The study of driver's workload is crucial in guiding future car design, in order to improve the user experience, comfort as well as driving performance and safety. Indeed, if task demands are too high in relation to the user's capabilities, errors may occur and may become critical for safety. The present paper defines a transdisciplinary approach based on monitoring the driver's workload during driving tasks in order to map the perceived user experience, and finally understand the interaction between the driver and the car systems. The approach is based on three layers: the human conditions to detect, the vital parameters to be monitored, and the adopted monitoring technologies. The paper proposes: a protocol to monitor the driver's workload during both real and simulated tasks, a technological set-up including physiological and performance data collection, and a proper data elaboration strategy. The key findings are: the selection of the most relevant subjective and objective parameters to measure the driver's mental workload, the definition of a preliminary technological set-up for monitoring the workload during simulated driving, and the evaluation of the effects of task complexity and of a secondary task on driver's performance. The research paved the way to further studies about how to miniaturize and embed sensors inside the car for a less intrusive application during real driving. Results can also be used to assess the interaction with car devices and to compare different design alternatives.

Mouse CD19-Targeted Chimeric Antigen Receptors That Include a 41BB Co-Stimulatory Domain Induce NFkB Signaling to Enhance T Cell Proliferation, Viability, and Leukemia Killing

CD19 targeted 2nd generation chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR T) cells have been successful against relapsed and/or refractory B cell malignancies. The pending FDA-approval of 2 separate CD19 targeted CAR T products highlight the need to understand the biology behind this novel therapy. CAR design includes a single-chain variable fragment, which encodes antigen-binding, fused to a transmembrane domain, co-stimulatory domain, and CD3ζ activation domain. The two CARs likely to be approved as standard of care include a 41BB or CD28 co-stimulatory domain. CD28 is a critical co-stimulatory receptor required for full T cell activation and persistence, while 4-1BB is a member of the tumor necrosis factor receptor family and also a critical T cell co-stimulatory factor. Early evaluation of the co-stimulatory domains role in CAR design confirmed that they are required to enhance T cell function, but lacked insight regarding their mechanism for this enhancement. Furthermore, clinical outcomes suggest that the co-stimulatory domains in CARs support different T cell functions in patients. For example, while overall outcomes are similar between 41BB (19BBz) and CD28-containing CARs (1928z), 19BBz CAR T cells can persist for years in patients, but functional 1928z CAR T cells rarely persist longer than a month. Recent studies are providing insight to these differences and have demonstrated that 4-1BB-containing CARs reduce T cell exhaustion, enhance persistence, and increase central memory differentiation and mitochondrial biogenesis, while CD28-containing CARs support robust T cell activation and exhaustion, and are associated with effector-like differentiation. However, these studies have been performed mostly in vitro or in immune deficient mice, which limits their ability to model complex immune biology. Therefore, we evaluated murine CD19-targeting CARs with a 4-1BB (m19BBz) or CD28- (m1928z) co-stimulatory domain in relevant animal models of immunity.We directly compared m19BBz and m1928z CAR T cell immune phenotype, cytotoxicity, cytokine production, gene expression, intracellular signaling, and in vivo persistence, expansion, and B cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) eradication. In vitro assays revealed that m1928z CAR T cells had enhanced cytotoxicity and cytokine production compared to m19BBz CAR T cells. Also, evaluation of m1928z and m19BBz CAR T cells displayed similar immune phenotypes, but markedly different gene expression with m1928z CAR T cells upregulating genes related to effector function and exhaustion, while m19BBz CAR upregulated genes critical for NFkB regulation, T cell quiescence and memory. In vivo, both m1928z and m19BBz CAR T cells supported equivalent protection against B-ALL. Similar to patients, in our mouse models there are functional differences between the mouse CD19-targeted CAR T cells. At 1 week post-infusion m19BBz CAR T cells are present in the blood of mice at significantly greater levels than m1928z CAR T cells. Furthermore, m19BBz CAR T cells enhance proliferation and/or anti-apoptosis protein expression to enhance B cell killing, which is evidenced by our observation that irradiation significantly weakens the in vivo efficacy of m19BBz but not m1928z CAR T cells. Our results suggest that B cell killing by m1928z CAR T cells is not impacted by irradiation because of their efficacious cytotoxicity of B cells. In contrast, m19BBz CAR T cells have enhanced viability and anti-apoptosis protein expression, which allows them to compensate for reduced effector function. We investigated potential mechanisms for the enhanced viability and anti-apoptosis of m19BBz CAR T cells and determined that NFkB signaling is upregulated much greater by m19BBz than m1928z. We have observed this difference in both a reporter cell line and primary mouse T cells. We are now dissecting what cellular components mediate increased NFkB signaling by the m19BBz CAR. Our animal models recapitulate equivalent anti-leukemia efficacy of CD19-targeted CAR T cells regardless of co-stimulatory domain, but underscore that anti-leukemia killing is mediated by different methods depending on the co-stimulatory domain. Our work sheds light on how 4-1BB mechanistically regulates and impacts CAR T function and has implications for future CAR design and evaluation. DisclosuresNo relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

“Future car designs must also take emotions into account”

“Future car designs must also take emotions into account”

The Application of New Material and New Technology in Car Design

In this article, the important development trend of car design will be discussed. At first, the purposes of the application of new materials and technologies in car design will be stated. Then the new kinds of energy which are applied in the future cars will be explored. The classification of new material and technology will be demonstrated. Furthermore, some examples will be described to show how new materials and new technologies can be used in car design. In additional, it is likely to be that new materials and processes will promote sustainable development of the car design. Based on current development of automotive design, it is necessary to predict some of the new materials and new technology will be applied in future car designs. It seems that new materials and new technologies will bring breakthrough in car design.

Concept Car Design and Ability Training

Abstract The concept design as a symbol of creative design thinking, reflecting on the future design of exploratory and prospective, as a vehicle to explore the notion of future car design, design inspiration and creativity is not only a bold display, more through demonstrate the concept, reflects the company's technological strength and technological progress, and thus enhance their brand image. Present Chinese automobile design also has a very big disparity with world level, through cultivating students’ concept design ability, to establish native design features and self-reliant brand image is practical and effective ways, also be necessary and pressing.

Recycling system flexibility: the fundamental solution to achieve high energy and material recovery quotas

In order to investigate the feasibility of achieving the high material and energy recovery targets imposed by EU legislation for post-consumer goods, a fundamental material and energy recovery optimisation model has been developed. This model is used to analyze the total recycling system with the end-of-life treatment system for the car used as example to illustrate the developed principles. The model allows construction, evaluation and optimisation of different end-of-life vehicle (ELV) recovery and treatment scenarios based on a fundamental quality description of each of the flows in the system. This description makes it possible to include the physics of separation, post-shredder treatment (PST), feedstock recycling, metallurgical and thermal processings on a first principles manner in order to evaluate the system on a technical and recyclate quality basis. This fundamental description of recycling systems questions the results of life cycle assessment and similar approaches that cannot capture the physical quality of recyclates. Evaluation of various end-of-life-vehicle (ELV) processings, recovery and treatment scenarios, including (i) restricted optimisation according to the legislation and (ii) unrestricted by legislation but more market and technology driven, have shown the large negative impact on the overall recycling performance if restriction of the flexibility of processing options is too large. Flexibility of the ELV recovery and processing system permits achieving high material and energy recovery quotas (rates) (over 95%) with the use of feedstock recycling and energy recovery for organic containing fractions if they cannot be suitably physically separated. The imposed legislative restriction on the amount of material that can be directed to thermal processing for energy recovery forces the system to include additional post-shredder treatment, with the result that material and energy recovery quotas are significantly lower at 88–91%, hence creating complex waste fractions. It is interesting to note that these fundamental results support recent studies that propagate a more market driven and less quota driven system for ELV treatment. In view of complex innovative car designs it is essential that a balance is struck between feedstock recycling, physical separation, material and thermal recovery, due to the complex recyclates of possibly poor quality and economic value restricting processing. Therefore these results suggest that post-shredder treatment (PST) should be considered carefully before installing too much sophisticated separation technology in favour of energy recovery technology. PST should be attuned to future car designs and not to the present, since product complexity could make too much physical separation uneconomical. In essence, this paper argues that achieving high material and energy recovery quotas of de-polluted cars is possible if the limiting stipulation of 5 and 10% energy recovery (for 2006 and 2015, respectively) is dropped from legislation. This implies that legislation can impose high material and energy recovery quotas, but that the relevant amount of energy and material recovery should be left free to follow the dynamics of innovative product design and process operation (i.e. operational costs and market value of recyclates). Therefore the law should simply state: “ Material and energy recovery from an automobile should together reach a technological defendable maximum which implies that good business practice and the market should determine how much material and energy are recovered from the various material fractions respectively.” This should not be fixed by legislation. In addition, poor sampling statistics on data makes measurement of quotas difficult due to often lacking standard deviations, supporting such a conclusion further.

Future vehicles: an introduction

Many researchers doubt that the familiar car can continue on the course developed over the past half-century or more. Environmental and resource problems from the manufacture, operation, and disposal of cars will require major changes in vehicle design and manufacturing methods, and in the materials and fuels used. Growing world car ownership is increasing both road congestion and traffic fatalities, and both factors could also influence future car design. At the same time, advances in Information Technology appear to offer new approaches to vehicle design, congestion, and safety. This paper briefly examines the various factors that will shape future vehicle design, fuels, infrastructure, and industry. We find that forecasting what will happen in any of these areas is becoming an increasingly difficult task, although some trends have appeared which provide some degree of insight.