Background

Traffic congestion is a pressing issue in urban transportation, impacting both internal combustion and electric vehicles. The sheer volume of cars on the roads has overwhelmed our city infrastructures, rendering the roads unusable. This has significant implications, causing inconvenience and wasting precious time in our daily lives. From being late to work to missing important events, traffic congestion has far-reaching effects. Addressing this challenge is crucial for enhancing urban mobility and improving the overall quality of transportation.

Research

80% of people in the US are choosing their own cars as transportation to work or school.

People spend an average of 8 month sitting in traffic through life.

76% of vehicles on the roads are occupied by a single person.

Interview

We asked people who commute to work or school everyday about their choice of transportation.

"I've tried bikes and walking,

but I don't want to arrive work sweaty, it seems unprofessional."

"Public transport are unreliable, I want to have control over my time."

Insights

Over 80% of people choose to their car to commute isn't because it's efficient.

People drive their cars everyday because they are used to. Cars are familiar to most Americans, they feel comfortable and safe in this familiar space. And the feel of in control made people choose to drive their own vehicle over any other transportation.

Ideation

How might we create a solution that's familiar like a car but more efficient on the road?

To begin our design process, first we started with brainstorming and sketching. We are not looking for specific solutions, but just letting our creativity flow.

After filter through rounds of ideas, we started to see some patterns. A single passenger compact vehicle is what we all thinking about.

During our full scale prototyping & research, it was awesome to be able to see and touch our design. And because of that, we found one of the most innovative features of XENO.

While lifting up the model, we tilted the body up but the rear wheel stayed on ground. As we view from the side, the footprint of the vehicle shortened significantly. Therefore we realize this could be a realistic function of our design to quickly reduce its profile on the road.

Early Concept

Form Exploration

After finalize our concept, we now understand how XENO work and benefits the users. So now we are going to dive deep into the aesthetic forms and detailed user experience for the design.

Refine

With the help of foam and CAD models, we now understand the proportion and form for XENO. So now with more ideation and sketching, we are refining the design to every details.

Matching surfaces between bumper and main body to allow smooth rotation

Simply pushing the rear wheel forward to pivot up the rear end

Keeping the front end stationary and separate from the cockpit.

Concept Scenario

While the user is ready to enter XENO, it sense the user and pivot up the body.

1

The tilted position and wing styled door enable the user to get in easily.

2

XENO drops down the body to travel on open road at comfortable speed.

3

4

Eventually, the user encounter traffic, but XENO doesn't have to wait.

With simply press of a button, XENO pivots up and shorten the wheel base.

5

Now XENO can travel in bike lanes without taking up any extra space.

6 Feedbacks

In order to further improve our design, we asked industry professionals to come in and review our project. We introduced the concept of XENO and received many useful feedbacks to push the design further.

How can we make XENO appear more friendly to bikers?
Is it possible to communicate with the riders in bike lane?
What can XENO do in a bigger picture?

Final Design

After reviewing our notes from the previous presentation, we refined the design language to more of a soft and friendly style while pushing what urban mobility can look like in the near future.

The design of the front module and cockpit is precisely calculated and tested through Solidworks simulation to allow over 30 degrees of rotation.

The light pattern was inspired by many marine animals like whale sharks. This unique combination of light spots allow XENO to send visual signal to the surroundings.

This is what it looks like when 50 people are traveling by foot, bikes, XENOs and cars. As we can see, cars are taking a significant amount of space comparing to other mods of transportation.

By encouraging commuters to travel in smaller single passenger vehicles like XENO, a lot more road space can be freed. XENO gives the joy and independence of owning a vehicle while driving towards a sustainable future.

Prototyping

This is a 12 inch long 3D printed prototype. Mainly used for parts fitting test and CMF testing. Although the prototype's function are limited,It was great for the team to see form in real life.

Animation

Unmute Here

Final Presentation