Re*Move

Mitch Altman on The Magic of Open Design

We've said before and we'll say again, open, networked forms of design and collaboration are going to change how we solve many problems. They'll also shape the future of our cities, towns and villages, how we work in them, the ways we move and interact in them, the vehicles we design and the way they fit together.

Some of this is about cost - build something once, openly and others can improve it. But much of it is about the culture of open source designers and problem solvers.

Here I talk with San Francisco-based virtual reality and hacker god Mitch Altman, inventor of, amongst other things TV-B-Gone, and Vinay Gupta, open source hardware guru and inventor of the Hexayurt open source refugee shelter.

I ask whether these new networks of designers – often in the form of hackers or open source communities - spend too much time focused on arguing about the need to break down existing structures. Is there more happening beyond that? What can those networks be doing now – to create real value? Do hackers and open source networks have an identity and meaning that can defined by what they are, rather than what they aren't?

I also ask whether the hacker scene has started to build its own financial infrastructure yet?

Design Museum, Butler's Wharf, London. 9 July 2009.

Posted by Mark Charmer.

Reinventing the dashboard: Ford's Smartgauge

Speak to most people, and they'll tell you that the real revolutionary area of car design in the next ten-to-fifteen years will be the interior - and more specifically, the interface. J Mays went to great lengths last month to emphasize how important the HMI would be in future, and just how quickly it's changing.

Ford wants to be a leader in this area - and the Lincoln C concept, with its all singing, all dancing future-format of Sync, complete with apps, avatars and assistants, is the company's statement of intent to this end. Ultimately though, digital convergence in vehicles has the potential to be problematic. As Jean Jennings suggested in our recent interview with her "I always say, 'if it doesn't make you drive better, make it go away'". This gives designers and engineers a potential conflict when it comes to a future pointing towards future hybrids, EVs and so forth.

Put simply, three main factors determine how efficient and economical a car will be. Its configuration (size, weight, drivetrain type). The conditions (traffic and meteorological) within which it is being driven. And the difficult one for designers - the person behind the wheel. How the driver physically inputs on the car's controls (accelerator, brake, steering) massively impacts upon its economy - which is why we often see huge disparity in fuel economy figures on a given car. Clubfoots Charmer and Simpson managed a rather pitiful combined figure of 38mpg from our week in a Honda Insight. But Honda have been running a hypermiling challenge which has seen people get up to 80mpg.

It was this issue that a Ford team set out to solve with their Smartgauge system - the instrument panel on the new Ford Fusion Hybrid. The question at hand, in its most basic format, was how to help people get the best possible economy from the vehicle, without distracting or annoying them - and without frightening away those new to hybrids. Jeff Greenberg, project leader on the Smartgauge programme, explained to us how the team developed two guiding principals based on this. The first was the notion of a journey - allowing a driver to progress, learn and develop their driving by growing with the system over time. The second was the idea of a coach - a positive encouragement to help drivers get the most out of their vehicle, as opposed to being lectured and bossed into how to drive more economically. Over to Jeff...

Ultimately, the key breakthrough Ford have made with Smartgauge feels similar to Apple with the iPhone. They have created something simple to look at, which by using just screens (rather than physical knobs, buttons or gauges) can display different information, which is (potentially) infinitely configurable and changeable via software updates. Using two, 5.5' TFT screens either side of the central speedometer, Jeff and his team were able to arrive at four different 'levels' of operation by which a driver could use Smartgauge and interact with the Fusion hybrid. All of which sounds a little daunting before you see it - so the car is set up to be quite simple, and welcoming upon your first acquaintance with it, as demonstrated to us in this video...

While other hybrids tend to feature either a basic setup to indicate how the drivetrain is working (Ford's own Escape Hybrid), or a complex set of show-off graphs and complex diagrams (Toyota Prius), the Smartgauge is designed to make the Fusion Hybrid appeal to all-comers - from those buying their first hybrid, to those who are committed hypermilers who've clocked 100,000 miles in their Prius(es). The driver can choose from four different levels of display, which, as they progress from one to the next, gradually adds extra layers of information to help inform on what the car is doing, and to help the driver extract the best economy. The levels are known as Inform (most basic), Enlighten, Engage and Empower (most advanced)...

But what's it actually like on the road? Having had Jeff walk us through the system at a standstill, we went out on the roads of Dearborn to experience it for ourselves...

What's impresses about the display is its clarity and functionality, regardless of which level you are in. It could clearly appeal to multiple different types of driver. Newbies won't be scared off, while those who enjoy showing off their Prius's fuel economy graphs will love the most advanced levels where you can do things like see how much power drain the vehicle's accessories are creating. Crucially, as it's on the dashboard and in the driver's line of site, Smartgauge really makes it easy to coax the car along in EV mode for long periods (therefore achieving better fuel economy) without taking your eyes off the road. The bright green glowing EV symbol that lights up in the more advanced modes is a great 'corner of the eye' tell-tale to this effect.

The project illustrates the clear benefits that come from new ways of thinking, and greater openness and collaboration in the auto industry. The Smartgauge team worked closely not only with designers and engineers within Ford, but with the most famous user-design/research guys of them all - IDEO, and conducted extensive, ethnographic research - not only with hybrid drivers, but with those who drove hummers, bicycles, and even professional athletes and their trainers. Ultimately, this advanced and comprehensive approach to research, coupled with a simple, but subtle, rethink of how to utilise TFT screens to make most appropriate use of available software - as opposed to hardware - results in a highly impressive, engaging vehicle.

That the car itself is really impressive, needing no excuses for being a hybrid, helps. However, this display is the car's piece-de-resistence, one that will not only help drivers to achieve greater fuel economy than they might on their own, but keep them engaged, surprised and delighted by the car in a way that many vehicles don't once that new car sheen has worn off. Not only does the system make the car more fun to drive, it makes those behind the wheel better drivers. In our view, that means the team behind it deserve the upmost praise and respect.

Posted by Joseph Simpson on 18th June 2009

Disclosure: Ford is sponsoring The Movement Design Bureau's design and research work throughout 2009. We have an independent brief - and want to hear from you if it doesn't seem that way.

Riversimple: launching a new kind of car (part I - overview)

Today, on the terrace behind London's Somerset House, Riversimple launched the culmination of nine years research and development - their new open source, hydrogen powered city car. Like Local-Motors in the US (more on whom soon), Riversimple are utilising open source principals to design and develop a new car. But that's only half the story. Riversimple have, in effect, today launched a blueprint for how the car industry could reinvent itself - with wholesale changes to the way vehicles are designed, how they're fueled, where and how they're built, and how they're sold.

We captured a heap of footage at this morning's launch event and we'll get much of it online over the next day or so. Like us, you might be sceptical about the potential of hydrogen fuel cells, or the application of open-source principals in a hardware, rather than software setting. In this first video, Hugo Spowers - CEO of Riversimple, explain some of the principals behind, and answer some of the pressing questions about the car and the company behind it. It makes for interesting watching...

Full photoset by Mark, from today's event (click on photos to go to the flickr page):

Note: All of The Movement Design Bureau's published content - including our videos and photos you see, is creative commons 3.0 licensed. That means you can use it, republish it or mash it up on your own site - just include a link back to this page.

Posted by Joseph Simpson on 16th June 2009

Drew Smith on the car industry's failure to "do digital"

We spent a fine afternoon at the Angel pub in Rotherhithe, London on Friday, talking with one of our favourite design commentators - Drew Smith, aka @drewpasmith on Twitter, who edits the DownsideUpDesign blog. The conversation was, in several ways, atomic.

While in the 1950s and 60s cars stayed in tune with their age - the space rocket you could afford to buy - Drew argues that the auto industry has failed to connect with the digital age.

We talk too about the role that notions of ownership play, and how, as a result of social networking, they are perhaps starting to dissolve. Will digital networks and services fundamentally change how a new generation views cars? Can anyone harness this?

Mark Charmer talks with Drew Smith and Joseph Simpson. Angel at Rotherhithe, London, 29 May 2009.

Daimler invests in Tesla - two looking to future strategic co-operation

On stage at Daimler's museum, right now, Daimler and Tesla are announcing a strategic alliance. Daimler plans to invest in Tesla - quoting it paid "a double digit million-dollar sum for around a ten percent stake" in the silicon valley company. The two will go forward to co-operate, perhaps - we speculate - even on future models.

Talking about how the two combine the best of 'future' and 'historical' auto industry, what we found most interesting about what is being said, is that Daimler - one of the most vehement pushers of Hydrogen technology to date -  has suddenly decided it needs to get on board the EV train.

Secondly, that Daimler says an alliance with Tesla allows an electric-mobility future to be got to market much faster, because of the small, flexible, quick-responding nature of a small company like Tesla. Daimler further announced that by 2012 it would begin mass production of Smart EVs - and make them available to regular customers (at present, Daimler and Tesla are co-operating on a limited test fleet of Smarts). Mercedes will also help Tesla with future vehicle development, and even supply components in the future, the company said.

More soon... 

[This piece first appeared on BritsOnGreen - The Movement Design Bureau's new dedicated strand for green news and insight]

Honda Insight: photographic design review

Honda's Insight left the official Movement Design Bureau parking space (alright, the road outside the office) just over a week ago now, so having produced this light-hearted video review towards the end of its time with us, we've now had the chance to think about the car a little longer. Our lasting impression? A total bag of contradictions.

The Insight is at once both deeply impressive and yet slightly disappointing. Why? In short, because Honda has managed to wrap apparently smart, up-to-the-minute technology in a package that's both easy to live with, fine to drive and affordable for the average c-segment (think Golf, Focus) car buyer. Yet at the same time, that technology failed to deliver real world results in our hands, and out of a town environment, the Insight feels out of its depth - leaving us questioning the point of that slippery, low-drag 'kamm-tail' shape and the packaging compromises it has created elsewhere in the car.

We're going to explore some of the innovative thinking behind the Insight, and Honda's overall future strategy in a forthcoming blog, which will feature the interview we did with Honda UK's head of environment and government affairs - John Kingston - while we had the Insight.

But for now, we felt it worth delving a little bit more into the design and detail of the Insight - because this is an area which has raised much interest among others. Or to put it more bluntly, the fact that people think it looks like a Prius has raised plenty of eyebrows. So here are some key thoughts, details and features of the Insight in full on, close up technicolour...

Pretty? Not really, but hardly repulsive either. That high, chopped-off tail, and steeply sloping rear roofline combine to create what's known as a 'kamm-tail'. Invented (discovered?) by German design-engineer, Wunibald Kamm, it reduces the air turbulence thrown off the back of the car at speeds - which in turn reduces aerodynamic drag.  

The key contributing factor to people saying that the Insight looks like a Prius is the silhouette and side profile of the glass house. This becomes particularly evident when you see the upper part of the car in isolation, as in the picture above, but some of the detail resolution... 

J Mays: Ford's Global Design Chief on why 'the computer is today's hotrod'

Roland Barthes suggested that cars were the modern day equivalent of Gothic Cathedrals, “the Supreme creation of an era. Conceived with passion by unknown artists”. That's still true to this day. While fashion designers and architects have become household names and outright superstars, car designers are little known, often lost in the cloak of their brand’s identity. Of all the names that the average non-car nerd may have heard of, three are most likely to stand out: Patrick le Quement, Chris Bangle, and J Mays. So with le Quement retiring after 22 years as head of Renault design, and Bangle recently leaving BMW under unclear circumstances, this leaves Mays as arguably the most publicly recognisable car designer in the world right now.

Calm and unassuming in person, you’d never know that Mays was responsible for the design direction of (and for the hundreds of designers behind) Ford’s various brands and nameplates. Up until recently of course, this not only included Ford, Lincoln and Mercury - but Volvo, Jaguar, Land Rover and Aston Martin too. This led Mays to describe his job as being “about a mile wide and an inch deep.” But with PAG disbanded, and Volvo about to follow Jag, LR and Aston out of the Ford stable door, Mays seems pleased that his job is becoming “an inch wide and a mile deep.”

Clearly, he’s got more time to focus on making Ford’s core products stellar once again (recent cars such as the Flex and Taurus suggest this is already happening), along with giving under-nourished Lincoln and Mercury some love too. It’s the Lincoln C concept – unveiled at Detroit’s NAIAS in January 2009 - that we were primarily in town to talk to him about. Yet while that car is well worth a closer look, it’s the bigger issues facing the car industry and the world of car design that we really wanted his views on.

The Lincoln C Concept in Ford's product development studio

So here, Mays - the man behind VW's famous Concept One and Audi's influential Avus – who now also acts as Ford’s Chief Creative Officer, gives his views on a whole host of design subjects. From why the computer is today’s hotrod, to how he believes Ford is leading the way in user research, and why the skill-set of tomorrow’s car designer might need to be quite different to that of today’s.

As Ford moves forwards with its ‘One Ford’ strategy, it’s likely that many of the things you see from the brand will have been touched by the hand of Mays. So watch the video at the top of the article, to get an insight into how the future of the blue oval might look…

Full transcript follows, link to full unedited interview at bottom of the transcript>>

Could Scott Monty's one percent goal change Ford?

Joe and I had a drink with Scott Monty, Ford's head of social media, on Monday night. Arriving in a splendid old-fashioned bow-tie, Scott's at the heart of some of the big change going on at Ford, to communicate the company's story more openly.

Scott - aka @scottmonty on Twitter - is building quite a name for himself. @amydoesdesign, a design student at the University of Cincinnati cut to the point this weekend:

"Oh my god, you meeting Scott Monty is way more interesting than meeting J Mays [Ford's design boss]."

We talked about the challenge of getting 200,000 employees comfortable sharing more about what they do, and bringing to life what the organisation is about and how it's changing.

Scott's confident he can drive a change in how Ford communicates online. "Even if we get only one percent of our employee population doing this, that's 2,000 people - on Twitter, blogs, Facebook, discussion forums. We'll have an army of influencers from inside the company that will be able to share their own perspective on Ford. And put a human face on the company at the same time."

You can see a video of part of our chat below (in the super-low-light Dearborn Inn bar).

We talked about the tendency of young talent to be forced to leave behind the dynamic communication and collaboration tools of their college and personal lives when they arrive at a big corporation. Scott was adamant that these people shouldn't have to compromise how they communicate, just because they work at Ford.

"We're not necessarily competing with GM or Toyota for talent. We're competing with Google, with Oracle, with some of the best technology companies in the world. This has become a standard of working conditions. People want access to their Facebook pages, their favourite YouTube videos, their AIM accounts that allow them to communicate and stay connected."

If we don't do that from an enterprise structure, whether it's creating our own internally or allowing them to access it externally, it's going to be a huge problem.

He also stressed "it's not just a young person's game". And then Caroline arrived with our food. We'll pick up on that point next time we see him.

Ford's overall change theme is "Drive One". Somehow I can't help think that getting one percent of staff quickly onto Twitter would deliver radical change. Today, when we meet a Ford engineer or designer we walk away without a business card. The PR person is the funnel for communication. If Scott gets his way, maybe that will change.

Related reading:

Scott Monty on Ford's approach to social media

Posted by Mark Charmer. Mark is founder of The Movement Design Bureau, a global think tank. Video filmed in the Golden Eagle Lounge. Dearborn Inn, Michigan. 20 April 2009.

Sue Cischke, meet Drew Smith

 

On Thursday we interviewed Ford's Sue Cischke about the company's sustainability strategy and put the interview online. Now we're gathering comment from key thinkers we know. First up was Dan Sturges, next comes Drew Smith, currently based in Germany working as a freelance design strategist for an automotive design strategy consultancy. He also runs the downsideupdesign blog. Over to Drew...

By way of introduction, during a live interview last night at the Fortune Brainstorm: GREEN conference, Bill Ford went on record saying “One thing I’ll tell you for sure: our ability to forecast has been just horrible.” He added that despite bringing in external advisors to help forecast three-to-five year market developments, the company “might as well have just tossed darts” given their lack of success in defining the future of the Ford. Apart from demonstrating a, frankly, shockingly short term view on Ford’s future, one other thing occurred to me: Ford is talking to the wrong people.

Comfort zone

Against this background, I was, in some measure, pleasantly surprised by what Sue presented in the interview. It showed that the company is at least cognisant of some of the longer-term (i.e more than five year) mobility issues that the company will increasingly be party to.

Sadly, however, there was little to quell my fear that there’s not much in the way of a strategic approach to defining a sustainable role for Ford as part of an sustainable mobility future.

Furthermore, evidence abounded that old-school business thinking continues to reign supreme in Dearborn. From choosing to partner with an oil company, BP, in devising future vehicle strategy because “...they know... the fuel side of the business, we know... the vehicle side of the business” to continuing to interface with the old guard of the business development networks, there’s a sense that Ford is sticking, largely, to it’s comfort zone. 

Yet Sue goes on to say that it’s going to “...take a different mindset” for America to make the transition to smaller, more efficient cars and, in the longer term, to alternative modes of mobility. She never communicated, however, how a change in mindset, either Ford’s or America’s, might come about.

Sowing the seeds of change

The cultural climate, to my mind, has never been better for sowing the seeds of substantial change in the way societies relate to mobility. It’s clear, based on Bill’s comments and this interview, that if Ford wants to participate in, and profit from this moment, they need to start talking to a different group of advisors. Now.

From an American perspective, issues surrounding energy independence, environmental degradation and the collapse of the credit markets (with the resultant modification of consumer values), provide the right environment for a visionary car company to take the lead in presenting an alternative, more sustainable transport future. Importantly, the American political leadership is in a responsive, supportive frame of mind too.

"I can’t help thinking that Ford would do well to stop seeing themselves simply as a producer of cars and more as an active component in a sustainable mobility future."

Creating a vision, taking it public

Imagine the possibilities if Ford sat down with the real thought leaders in sustainability (I include in this group anthropologists, designers, design strategists and urban planners among others) and developed a wide-ranging, flexible series of options for sustainable mobility in urban and suburban areas. Then, through a document/movie/multimedia extravaganza (Scott Monty could define the form), picture Ford taking this vision to the public.

On the one hand, the event would act as the touch point for opening up grass-roots community discussion about how we would like our lives to be lived in relation to cars and the urban environment.

More importantly the discussions would provide feedback and an opportunity for in-depth study of how the culture surrounding mobility is changing at the end-user level on a local scale.

It’s not as if the idea of going public with a broad vision of the future is unprecedented in the car industry. The GM Motoramas that ran from ’49 to ’61 sold an entire nation of eager consumers the idea of expressing themselves through how they moved from place to place. Ford could do the same to usher in a new age of sustainable mobility and, as a bonus, get themselves truly back in touch with the consumer, a vital relationship that the Big Three have squandered over the last 30 years.

For Ford to attain global relevance as a mobility provider, and for their products to dovetail elegantly with local transport infrastructures, the company needs to provide solutions that are at least regionally and, ideally, locally appropriate, assembled close to their final destination. This is a concept that Gordon Murray is already working towards with his T25 small car.

Ford: Think beyond the product, think entire ecosystem

Needless to say, this shift towards system thinking is risky for Ford because, as Sue said “..systems aren’t our core business, cars are”.  But systems, beyond computer and OS, weren’t Apple’s core business either. Yet from the introduction of the iPod in 2001, via the opening of the iTunes Music Store in 2003 to becoming the world’s most popular online music and movie store, Apple transitioned from simply selling a product to providing the entire, highly profitable ecosystem.

At one point during the interview, Sue talks about the shift in environmental discourse from a binary, “black and white” approach to a more nuanced, “middle ground” view. I can’t help thinking that Ford would do well to undergo a similar shift in their thinking so that they stop seeing themselves simply as a producer of cars and more as an active component in a sustainable mobility future.

Drew lives in Frankfurt, Germany but originally hails from Australia. He holds a degree in Industrial Design from The University of Technology in Sydney, and a Masters Degree in Automotive Design from Coventry University - one of the world's premier automotive design colleges. He was recently named as one of Design Droplets top 10 industrial designers to follow on twitter. You can check out his profile here.

Sue Cischke, meet Dan Sturges

On Thursday we interviewed Ford's Sue Cischke about the company's sustainability strategy and put the interview online. Now we're gathering comment from key thinkers we know. Here's Dan Sturges, president of Intrago Mobility. Over to Dan...

I think Ford is a typical company that would communicate sustainability issues to engineering teams, design teams, sourcing people, etc.. I would bet that 85% of Ford's employees do not get a view over the "dashboard" - the view she or Bill Ford see of this complex new emerging mobility + access landscape un-folding. Sure the employees hear they should recycle their paper, fill their tires with air, etc.. But not about bold new vehicle sharing business models - Robin Chase talking about open-source transponders for every car and any car can be a rental car - how iPhones can make any car into a taxi (or so many other developments). Unfortunately for Ford employees they don't get to see all that is possible, but may get laid off because those who see what is ahead too often don't know what to do about it.

I think Ford should have an intranet site for their people that shares these bold new possibilities - to every employee that wants to look + learn. Why not let even a janitor at their St. Louis plant see what's happening. Perhaps he has some cool idea for a business offering seniors rides in mini-ev shuttles around his community. While Ford should really have a VC arm for employees starting new ventures - even if they didn't - it would be an important service to someone you might have to layoff at somepoint - to have a better sense of what the future of transpo might be and opportunities for them beyond Ford. Most likely, this type of creatve collaboration with 100% of your employees would bring amazing ideas to the business as well as a lot more happy excited "employees".

So, no, I think Sue and I have a very different idea as to who should be involved in sustainability at Ford.

Here are some things for me that stood out:

1) Vehicle Microrental.

Sue Cischke seemed to know more about the Zipcar business model than I had expected – about how consumers would have more choice in vehicles by moving past the ownership model, to instead match mode to trip.

This made me think that a Ford announcement in car-sharing might not be too far away. Perhaps they'll make an investment into Zipcar, or help a few Ford dealers test a “Flexible Lease” approach where a consumer’s car can be exchanged on the fly for another type of Ford car or truck at the nearby Dealer's lot. If this is true, and Ford will put their foot in the car-share pond, how odd it will be that they sold Hertz only 4 years ago. So much for the “vision thing”!

2) Mega City Mobility HUBS.

Sue said their work in the mega cities was not their core competency, but they were bringing IT to consumers in cities regarding transpo choices. Oddly, with 80% of Americans not able to get to or from public transit with ease, why not bring the Hub Concept to USA? Allow communities that need to match personal mobility with existing and new transit options to meet at the Community Mobility Hub? Why study Hubs with no connection to personal mobility in South America or India?

3) Small Car Safety.

Why do we never hear about how car companies are working with communities and cities to leverage IT to really reduce the chance of big and large vehicles hitting each other? Making travel in local communities like traveling in a boat is a Safe Harbor. Most of the tech she talks about is for freeway travel. But why not make it so small vehicles for community or urban travel are less likely to hit? We don’t design planes with bumpers, we make it so they won't hit.

4) Custom Solutions.

She said they make a car different for the Europe from the USA. But why not make these "local cars" I've mentioned - in a shape that's right for the Midwest or the Southwest? We tooled up the first Neighborhood Electric Vehicle for $1M. Now that fleet (of 50,000 NEVs) generates around 80 million one-way zero-emission trips a year in the USA! The digital revolution is poised to change the way we travel, as well as how we DESIGN, MAKE, and SELL this future. Ford just doesn’t think all that differently.

5) Working with others.

Yes they do, but the right groups? I don’t see any intent to really find the true disruptive thinkers in the space. I lived in Ann Arbor and heard all of the intent, but never saw it lead to the right folks.

I guess this last point relates to one of the first thing Sue said - that her job was to get the sustainability message to the right people in the company. I think there is likely a big difference between who she and I think are the "right" people.

Dan is based in Boulder, Colorado and designed the G.E.M, still to date the world's best selling EV. He is widely recognised as one of the world's leading evangelists for new vehicle and mobility concepts.