Hyperefficient, Supersafe Car Envisioned by International Group

Washington -- Amy Jaffe is surprised that only very few people think she and her colleagues are crazy. What the Massachusetts Technology Institute (MIT) senior, about 400 other students and 30 faculty members from around the world want to do is not a small feat.  The group plans to build, in just three years, a hyperefficient, supersafe four-passenger to six-passenger car called VDS Vision that will be produced and used with 95 percent less energy and toxic materials throughout its lifetime than an average existing vehicle.

This would revolutionize the global auto industry, according to news reports.

Jaffe shrugs off “revolutionize” as a “strong word.”

“Our scope is not too small,” she acknowledged in an interview. But she said the program participants want to leverage the accumulated experience of the auto industry, its leaders and innovators to their advantage rather than send it to the dustbin of history.

The project grew out of the Vehicle Design Summit (VDS), a summer 2006 program organized by Jaffe and her MIT friend Robyn Allen, at which international student teams built four superefficient automobile prototypes, including a plug-in electric vehicle and fuel-cell car.

Participants also launched a global student consortium to design, build and market VDS Vision. It includes teams of students and faculty members of 55 universities in 16 countries. Teams, often mentored by auto industry veterans, communicate mostly through the Internet and meet regularly for design reviews in different parts of the world.

By the end of summer 2008, student designers want to have a fully functional prototype and by September 2009 a tested model with a supply chain and identified potential buyers.

Adrian Chernoff, who volunteers as a guide, mentor and adviser to program participants, says they face a tremendous challenge.

“Can you imagine the complexity of aligning so many different vehicle parts, systems, hardware, software, etc., which connect with, relate to and are dependent on each other?” he asked in an interview.

Chernoff, an accomplished inventor and innovator, knows what he is talking about. As a chief architect and principal inventor behind General Motors's 2001 Reinvention of the Automobile program, he helped to bring about several concept and demonstration vehicles such as AUTOnomy, Hy-Wire, CARousel and Sequel.

With many independent teams spread around the world, working together smoothly and efficiently will be the most difficult part of the project, Chernoff said.

“In the end, it is about networking, collaboration and teamwork,” Chernoff said.

But participants have an advantage, he said.  Because so many of them will be looking at all auto systems with a fresh eye, Chernoff continued, they may be able to create novel efficiencies or at least demonstrate that students can deliver an innovative workable vehicle.

Jaffe said the group's goal goes beyond that; members also want to change the way cars are produced and used. Eventually they plan to release the core architecture to the public domain so other car manufacturers can use it to develop their own products, and experts, enthusiasts and end-users can improve and develop the core architecture further.

Student designers also want their car to be multifunctional, particularly in their primary target markets of India, China and other emerging-market countries. For example, Jaffe said, a vehicle used by a person or a group of people as a commuter car can be used during the day by a taxi driver or a delivery person rather than sit in a parking lot.

She said the program has received only a “little bit of money” from the auto industry, but much support from individual industry experts.

Chernoff said the industry will take notice only if students create a vehicle with a “very compelling value for their target consumers,” and if that vehicle is “aligned with the future of the industry.”

But no matter what the outcome, he said, student designers will learn a practical lesson that will help them gain valuable skills for future jobs.

More information on the Vehicle Design Summit is available on the VDS Web site.

(USINFO is produced by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)