Plastic under Pressure

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By Technology Review

April 2004

Smart Cars

A new Media Lab class is creating a concept car that redefines passengers' relationship to the city. Since last semester, the year-long class has churned out dozens of designs, which will eventually be incorporated into a General Motorsbuilt prototype.

The goal is to design an automobile that has the savvy of a cab driver or concierge, according to William J. Mitchell, project leader and academic head of Media Arts and Sciences. For example, Global Positioning Systemenabled devices in the car might warn drivers about upcoming traffic jams or potholes. The students are even considering how seats could be better configured: in one design, a car four seats wide has a moveable steering wheel, so all the passengers can take turns driving.

The class includes 15 undergraduates, graduate students, and postdoctoral associates in disciplines ranging from computer science to business management. To compensate for their relative inexperience in design, the students research automobile design topics and present their findings in class. "Design is changing," Mitchell says. "It's not a matter of having a lot of accumulated expertise; it's a matter of being able
to learn very quickly in new situations."

Mitchell hopes to send the class's ideas to the Santa Monica, CA, architecture firm Frank O. Gehry and Associates within the next three months. The firm will work with GM to create a full-scale prototype, which could be finished in three years.