LA Auto Show: Two-peat! GM wins LA Design Challenge again
For the second year in a row, the General Motors West Coast Advanced Design Studio has won the LA Auto Show Design Challenge. Last year the General landed on top with the futuristic party van called the GMC Pad. This year's winning entrant was the HUMMER 02, a tread-lightly concept that not only met the challenge of the contest's theme this year, Enivoronmental Sustainability, but surpassed it by offering the environment a net gain. The out-there enviro-concept features a phototropic body shell with algae-filled body panels that literally photosynthesizes carbon dioxide into oxygen. That's right, it breathes oxygen into the atmosphere. The 02 is technically a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle with four hydraulic motors, one in each wheel. The greenest HUMMER ever conceived, the 02 would never be a candidate for a green washing.
More renderings and GM's press release with more details on the 02 can be found after the jump.
[Source: GM]
PHOTO GALLERY:
PRESS RELEASE:
GM Wins First Place in Blue Sky Concept Design
LOS ANGELES – GM Advanced Design has won the Los Angeles Auto Show's Design Challenge for the second year in a row. This year's winning entry is a two-dimensional rendering of a 2015 Blue Sky Concept that addresses environmental sustainability. Called the HUMMER 02, this design proves that daily use of a vehicle could result in a net gain for the environment.
The 2006 Design Challenge theme is Environmental Sustainability, a challenge for design studios to transform the future of driving into an environmental experience. Contest guidelines also required that vehicle entries be 100-percent recyclable and have a maximum lifespan of just 60 months. GM's entry is presented as a series of two-dimensional images, not as a 3D model.
Designers at GM's West Coast Advanced Design Studio in Southern California tackled the far-reaching challenge – to develop a concept that resulted in a net gain for the environment. The GM team crafted an entry that surpasses the contest's sustainability principles: the HUMMER O2 Concept.
"The HUMMER O2 epitomizes the ethos of the true Southern California outdoors enthusiast with rugged capability, a 'tread lightly' contact system and construction methods promoting safety, accessibility and reusability," said Frank Saucedo, director, GM Advanced Design in California . "Most vehicles in L.A. spend 95 percent of their time outdoors subjected to sunlight, so why couldn't a vehicle give back?"
To fully understand the HUMMER O2, the GM team believes that terms commonly associated with ecology and biology work best.
Photosynthesis
The HUMMER 02 Concept features a revolutionary phototropic body shell that produces pure oxygen throughout the life of the vehicle. Algae-filled body panels transform carbon dioxide into pure oxygen that is subsequently released back into the environment and inside the vehicle.
"The panels essentially function as the 'leaves' of the HUMMER O2 and effectively clean the air in the surrounding environment," said Saucedo. "Used algae are recycled as biomass for the further production of energy."
Breathing
The HUMMER 02 promotes the production of oxygen by a two-way valve system in the corner of each panel. The sophisticated devices control and monitor the amount of carbon dioxide and source nutrition needed for the algae cultivation while optimizing oxygen production and distribution.
Energy
Four modular and self-contained fuel cells power hydraulic motors built into each wheel. A hydrogen tank is placed in an ideal central location for safety and structural purposes, becoming the "heart" of the vehicle.
Footprint
Active Tread TM tires provide low resistance on the highway while allowing excellent off-road progress as their shape changes – adapting to and protecting the surrounding environment.
Structure
Finally, to further reduce environmental impact, the HUMMER O2's construction specifies the use of 100-percent post-consumer materials, including an aluminum frame, seats finished with Volatile Organic Components-free (VOC-free) materials and glazing via PETE (similar to everyday consumer packaging, such as soda bottles).
The GM West Coast Advanced Design Studio won the 2005 Design Challenge competition with its GMC PAD Concept, a mobile urban loft designed for the L.A. environment.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
cFoo 7:13PM (11/30/2006)
Can someone please tell me why it is that GM wins these design challenges but their products are nothing but pile of ugly 80 crap? Lost in translation anyone?
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John P. 7:47PM (11/30/2006)
They have some extremely talented people working at GM, but dealing with unions, shareholders, and management that cares more for the shareholders than it does the product is a killer every time.
could be wrong ofcourse, but not about the fact some of them are extremely talented.
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Jay 8:02PM (11/30/2006)
And how, I wonder, will the algae in the body panels sustain themselves over the grand scheme of time? I wonder how this thing will look when the body panels are filled with a lot of brown goo.
I do think the shape-changing tread pattern is a slick idea, though.
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Tyro 8:07PM (11/30/2006)
--John Neff--
You must be joking.
Quote: "The greenest HUMMER ever conceived, the 02 would never be a candidate for a green washing." WTF
Dude this "car" is the definition of "green washing".
Tell me who's really putting on worthless publicity stunts? :)
Wikipedia says:
Greenwash (a portmanteau of green and whitewash) is a pejorative term that environmentalists and other critics use to describe the activity of giving a positive public image to putatively environmentally unsound practices. The term first arose in the early 1990s (an early use of the word appeared as the title of an article in the 1991 March/April issue of Mother Jones magazine).
Corporations claim that the promotion of free markets policies, new technology and economic growth are essential to promoting sustainable development, and increasingly claim that they are more environmentally aware. Critics, however, claim that there is little evidence transnational corporations are substantially changing their behavior despite their rhetoric; and they claim that many corporations remain the primary creators of environmentally damaging and unsustainable technologies. Greenwashing is thus a deceptive marketing technique only.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_washing
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Charles Z 8:20PM (11/30/2006)
GM deserves bankruptcy if management is keeping these fantastic ideas and designs from fruition.
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dave 9:20PM (11/30/2006)
lighten up tyro. did you miss shipping out on greenpeace? it's a competition of ideas, not something that will be on th market next month. you should've seen the other contestants. you'd puke.
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Barney 12:37AM (12/01/2006)
I wonder why Ford quite making plastics from Soy Beans? The plastic was used in the interiours of Henry's cars and he even made a whole car body from the plastic in 1938(?). Perhaps the cost is prohibative.
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tj 5:54AM (12/01/2006)
I think it is a cool idea. And as for poorly designed cars...that was true to a point but truly is the 80's talking now and not anyone who has looked at the cars coming out since last year. The camaro concept won best of show in Detroit and now is in production and hard to criticize for it's design, the Enclave concept is now a production car with little change from the concept (a beautiful design inside and out by literally anyone who has chosen to review it). The solstice, the sky? Saab Aero-X -- another best of show winner. Spy shots of the new malibu and the new cts show them to be very evocative designs that are both production vehicles and will be on display in detroit in a month. You can dis GM for alot of things but in 2006-7 design is not one of them....they got the vehicles, the awards, the reviews and the sales of those vehicles to prove it. The designers are being let out of the box, it's a slow transformation but Lutz is doing it.
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Fabulo 7:03PM (12/01/2006)
I don't know how deep this 'design' is. All I can see is pretty 3D Studio Max rendering of a cool model. With pretty words attached like Hydrogen and Algea.
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Thibaut 9:39AM (12/05/2006)
Am I the only one thinking of Massey Fergusson here ?
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lance 3:30PM (12/05/2006)
great another atv, light on gas but guarnteed to rip the woods to shreds. Should get the clueless award.
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mliving 7:07PM (12/05/2006)
Come on.... this design is just too stupid for words.
Why do American designers think that making concept vehicles look like a flippin' Mars rover some how make them look cool.
Please... grow up America the world DOESN'T NEED BIG anymore.
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HellSpawn 3:02PM (12/06/2006)
I want 2 of those. I swear. It looks sweet for outdoor activity!
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SpudgeBoy 4:56PM (12/06/2006)
For any of you second guessing that this is nothing more than a publicity stunt, you must have posted your comment before GM came out and said that this absolutely was to try and clean up the image of the Hummer brand name, which everybody associates with big gass guzzling pieces of crap.
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Guy 1:12PM (12/07/2006)
As a eco-friendly, I think this is a great bunch of ideas, both in using algae is a great idea, and I'd personally like to see those tires being used sooner than 2015. They obviously have a lot of hurdles to pass to get this type of vehicle to the consumer stage, but it's a good start. It's an interesting move on GM's part to put this uber 'green' car under the Hummer name. I suppose it's there way of trying to make up for messing up the earth (not that it was their fault alone).
As for Tryo's attack on Greenwashing, using Wikipedia as your source of information is noble in cause, but let's be honest- Wikipedia is NOT a reliable place to cite. (Note: I don't know anything about Greenwashing- I just want to point out Wikipedia isn't something to take as fact.)
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elan keisler 12:08PM (12/07/2006)
Ford quit using soy-based plastics because certain animals like goats like to eat soy-bean fenders. I guess GM better make sure none of that algae is exposed.
But heck, instead of designing a green car, how about GM start by selling cars period, instead of putting most of their advertising behind SUV's. Why is it that American car companies are laying off thousands of people? I think its partially because their vehicle designs just keep getting bigger and more powerful than anyone ever needs while foreign cars like Toyota's get smaller and smaller. Comments?
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AncientBrit 4:30PM (12/07/2006)
There's a tendency for certain European fashion designers to come up with clothing that is just so impractical - yet they're applauded for their design genius.
I think the same principle applies here. Looks good (if you like Massey Ferguson and Tonka), but it will never see the light of day. I'm not even sure the design is that good - what happens to a luckless pedestrian hit by this beast at speed? I see too many flesh-unfriendly protrusions for my comfort...
In twenty years I haven't seen a really decent improvement in gas mileage, theft-proofing, safety, or reliability. Compare the improvements in say PCs over the same period and you get an idea of what ought to be achievable in a product that has so much R&D capacity behind it (and we moan about the pace of PC improvement).
Oh, and Wikipedia's supposed unreliability? A recent study in Nature compared Wikipedia with Encyclopedia Britannica and found they had about the same level of error. Ergo, if you take what EB says as fact, you can have the same trust in Wikipedia.
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Algae grower 4:44PM (12/07/2006)
It takes a lot of energy to carry around those water filled panels while the fill up with green slime. Even if that slime has energy value, why would you want to transport it while it is growing? Maybe it is designed to be stationary. How would you get at its energy value once the panels were thick and gloppy enough to consider them "done"? Did they put any thought into this at all, or was the thought to do a literal greenwashing of the surface of the vehicle?
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Joe 10:16PM (12/11/2006)
Thats weird!
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Robyn Saunders 10:44AM (12/08/2006)
I'd rather have a Mini Cooper!
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