3 ms·

> I always thought crazy concept cars were a waste of time and resources for car companies. If they instead focused on massive in-house iteration (like Apple's

> I always thought crazy concept cars were a waste of time and resources for car companies. If they instead focused on massive in-house iteration (like Apple's 10-3-1 prototyping process), better cars would be brought to market. Definitely. I've been watching the car industry for a few years now, and I'm still waiting for an "Apple" to emerge.

riffer 16y ago
I've been watching the car industry for a few years now, and I'm still waiting for an "Apple" to emerge. Give Tesla a few years
watmough 16y ago
A great point, but car companies do iterate. The iteration just occurs over model years. Take the widely acclaimed Chevy Malibu as an example. This started off as a pretty cruddy GM, but now it's reputedly competitive with Japanese models. I'm sure that hard deadlines for production, very strict cost controls etc., conspire to impose a more rigid than agile process. Perhaps, take a look at UK car companies in the 50's for a looser approach to car design. http://www.aronline.co.uk/index.htm?ado15story1f.htm http://www.aronline.co.uk/index.htm?ado15story1f.htm [Development of the Austin-Morris Mini]
- elblanco 16y ago
  They iterate even more out of the public eye. There are endless reams of concept art that never even made it to scale model clay. All of the major manufacturers have design houses staffed with people who's sole job is to draw neat looking car ideas. Eventually a few float to the top and they make scale models out of clay (or in this day and age on rapid prototype machines). And then those design studies may end up as full sized, half-car (lengthwise) mock-ups made out of clay. If they survive that, they may even get made into a pure, non-functional concept car like we see at trade shows. It the public reception is positive, they turn manufacturing engineers loose on the design and they cut out all the artistic junk that would cause the car to cost 4 times as much to make, and introduce safety devices and such that change the styling.....it might make it to a functional prototype at that point where they show it at next year's auto-show, if reception is still good, it'll probably make it into to production.
stcredzero 16y ago
I thought Toyota had 10 parallel teams working on the hybrid power train, of which they picked 1.

riffer 16y ago

I've been watching the car industry for a few years now, and I'm still waiting for an "Apple" to emerge. Give Tesla a few years

watmough 16y ago

A great point, but car companies do iterate. The iteration just occurs over model years. Take the widely acclaimed Chevy Malibu as an example. This started off as a pretty cruddy GM, but now it's reputedly competitive with Japanese models. I'm sure that hard deadlines for production, very strict cost controls etc., conspire to impose a more rigid than agile process. Perhaps, take a look at UK car companies in the 50's for a looser approach to car design. http://www.aronline.co.uk/index.htm?ado15story1f.htm http://www.aronline.co.uk/index.htm?ado15story1f.htm [Development of the Austin-Morris Mini]

elblanco 16y ago
They iterate even more out of the public eye. There are endless reams of concept art that never even made it to scale model clay. All of the major manufacturers have design houses staffed with people who's sole job is to draw neat looking car ideas. Eventually a few float to the top and they make scale models out of clay (or in this day and age on rapid prototype machines). And then those design studies may end up as full sized, half-car (lengthwise) mock-ups made out of clay. If they survive that, they may even get made into a pure, non-functional concept car like we see at trade shows. It the public reception is positive, they turn manufacturing engineers loose on the design and they cut out all the artistic junk that would cause the car to cost 4 times as much to make, and introduce safety devices and such that change the styling.....it might make it to a functional prototype at that point where they show it at next year's auto-show, if reception is still good, it'll probably make it into to production.

stcredzero 16y ago

I thought Toyota had 10 parallel teams working on the hybrid power train, of which they picked 1.