The future of custom cars? Looks like I might be out of a job...

[Ace-Garageguy]

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[Richard Bartrop]

It looks promising.  When I saw the augmented reality design session, I immediately thought of this painting by Syd Mead, which depicted pretty much the same thing.

[unclescott58]

I kind of like the looks of the car posted in the video. It's okay. Not as cool as Syd Mead's designs. But, not bad. The idea of building the car the way they do, is very cool and interesting. 

Edited January 23, 2019 by unclescott58

[Richard Bartrop]

And like they said, if you can build a car, you can build anything.  Imagine, instead of printing out a frame, printing out a set of injection moulds.

Edited January 23, 2019 by Richard Bartrop

[Spex84]

Hokay, that's cool, but...I'm not seeing anything earth-shattering

-car designed traditionally by skilled artists

-car modeled in 3D by skilled artists using VR software to review the design (unlikely that it was actually modeled in VR, but I could be wrong).

-frame and suspension fabricated using traditional techniques

-lots of sensors and stuff used to capture...what? Physics info? Frame stresses? Handling data?

-AI used to generate a space-frame between the shell (was that fabricated by humans too?) and the hand-built frame/suspension (this is the "oh wow" tech here), kinda like that 3D printed pedestrian bridge that was completed recently.

-Lots of video-editing and SFX people make a video that looks WAY cooler than the nuts n' bolts reality for promotional purposes.

I'm not seeing any risk of fabrication, engineering, or art jobs going away, here!! Just a little tweak to the formula.

All grumping aside, it takes vision to get anywhere, and it's cool to see emerging tech getting integrated into the design process!

 

[Ace-Garageguy]

12 hours ago, Spex84 said:

...Lots of video-editing and SFX people make a video that looks WAY cooler than the nuts n' bolts reality for promotional purposes.

I'm not seeing any risk of fabrication, engineering, or art jobs going away, here!! Just a little tweak to the formula...

Agreed. My title was a little tongue-in-cheek in response to the somewhat overheated and breathless nature of the vid.

Still, as you say, it's interesting to see lotsa whoopee-gee-whiz techy-doo "integrated into the design process".  

And as far as I'm aware, the tech doesn't yet exist to 3D fab a functional chassis using large-scale metal-deposition (sputtering). The vid looks as though the concept is essentially using a wire-feed welder, CAD/CNC/robotically controlled, to build up structure analogous to a tubular space frame. For now, I think I'll stick with plain old dinosaur-era seamless tubing.   

Edited January 23, 2019 by Ace-Garageguy

[oldcarfan]

Even with 3D printing and CAD/CNC and whatever else comes along, there will always be a demand for craftsmen and particularly for high end, exclusive stuff. Any goober with money can go and buy a new Porsche 911, Ferrari, but to be thought really cool and tasteful by their peers, you've got to have a hand-built Troy Trepanier car, a Singer Porsche or a Derelict built by ICON or something.  The same thing applies further down the line. If you've got the skills to do something different, you will find someone willing to pay for it. My teenager wants to be a blacksmith and farrier and he's already telling us how in demand that is.

[Richard Bartrop]

If anything this will make it easier to get something a little different.

[Ace-Garageguy]

58 minutes ago, Richard Bartrop said:

If anything this will make it easier to get something a little different.

Yeah, like in the real-world, custom-car builders are going to have access to 3D printers that can do an entire chassis?

Well, maybe if you have a Saudi oil sheikh's money, you can hire a company like that...or if Bill Gates ever wants to become a car guy. But this tech, at least in the foreseeable future, is probably beyond the reach of even Jay Leno's resources.

So when the voiceover guy says "imagine designing and building a car as easily as playing a video game"...exactly who is he talking to? What's the potential customer base?

The old-school skills still work perfectly. I can build something "a little different" (actually, one helluva lot different) in my own garage, without any whizbang tech whatsoever, and if I can do it, a LOT of people could do it. 

This stuff is cool, no argument, but it reinforces the idea that you just can't build anything anymore without computers and robotic hardware...and that's just not true.