Some members of Generation Z are still in preschool, but that hasn’t stopped a team of graduate students from building a concept car catered specifically to the group, whose year of birth can range as far as the mid-1990s to early 2010s.
Through a collaboration with Toyota Motor North America, a team of graduate students studying at Clemson University’s International Center for Automotive Research have designed, engineered, and built the “uBox.”
The uBox is the sixth concept vehicle built under the Deep Orange series, a partnership between graduate automotive engineering students at Clemson, transportation design students at the ArtCenter College of Design in California, and companies involved in the automotive industry.
“Deep Orange gives students hands-on experience with the entire vehicle development process, from identifying the market opportunity through the vehicle build,” said Johnell Brooks, an associate professor in Clemson’s graduate engineering program, according to a statement from the university. “It’s like automotive boot camp for the real world.”
Despite the fact that the project was meant to prepare the students for careers in the automotive business and not for creating a car that will eventually hit the road, Toyota has gained some important information from the partnership.
“This has been a valuable experience for us as well,” said Jeff Makarewicz, senior VP of Vehicle, Quality & Safety Engineering at Toyota Motor North America, according to Clemson’s statement. “Seeing how the next generation of engineers thinks, works and integrates technology has been a great takeaway.”
Toyota thinks that the average owner of the uBox would be a young businessperson who wants to use the vehicle as a sort of office when working and as a center for recreation when they’re not.
To support these activities, the uBox was given an interior that can easily altered on the fly. When the seats aren’t in use, they can be nested to allow for more room.
Also provided was an emission-free energy system which would allow owners to charge electronic devices using a number of uBox’s 110-volt sockets.
The concept vehicle features a number of other customizable features. For example, its vents, dashboard, and door trim could be 3D printed. Owners could later share their design idea on an online discussion board, which makes complete sense given Generation Z’s propensity for socializing online.
Perhaps one of the more impressive feats that the students came up with during the creation of the concept car was a pultrusion technique that allows aluminum-bonded composite carbon fiber rails to hold a curved glass roof.
“The roof pultrusion was something unexpected and very interesting when they first started talking about the concept,” said Toyota’s Executive Program Manager Craig Payne, according to a statement from the company. “The fact that they were able to achieve an industry-first manufacturing technique as students speaks volumes for this program.”
The uBox is on display at the Cobo Center in Detroit through Thursday.
