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VISION-S Prototype Design Story

VISION-S Prototype Design Story

How Sony’s foray into mobility became a pursuit of “reality”

#5 Communication design

As the product design for the VISION-S Prototype pushed forward, so did another initiative: the car’s communication design, a process of deciding what to communicate to the world and the optimal way to do so. The communication-design team started with ideas, shaped intangible thoughts and feelings into a message, and came out of the effort with a clear statement in words, images, and more. For the true essence of the VISION-S Prototype to make an impact on audiences, the project team needed more than a complete product—it also depended on the right way to connect with people.

Defining “mobility” for the Sony brand

Sony had been exploring the question of what next-generation mobility might look like: better safety, deeper emotional connections, and new relationships with the environment. To make a meaningful impact on the future of the auto industry and society on the whole, Sony knew it would have to show the world a vision of the future with a grounding in reality—not pure fantasy. Operating in that context, the communication-design team for the VISION-S Prototype had its first mission: rendering Sony’s concept of mobility in clearer definition. The team started to verbalize the ideas in phrases like “taking on challenges” and “being there for people.” That jelled into the vision for the communication design, which then made its way across the project’s different segments to establish a shared foundation. The whole initiative had a common conceptual framework to build around, and that basis sustained the process all the way to the end.

A new symbol of connection, not just an emblem

A car that puts people at the center of everything. A car that wraps riders up in a warm embrace. When that concept started coming into view, the communication-design team got to work on a symbol to capture the core ideas. But instead of trying to imagine an emblem, a symbolic “badge” for the product, the designers went with a distinct motif—the graphic symbol used in an electrical schematic. What they came up with was a take on the letter “S,” its two ends stretching out indefinitely. On the exterior design of the car, the ends of the “S” link with the Daytime Running Light (DRL) and form a loop around the car’s circumference, a core design component that grew out of the symbol. That oval-shaped ring is such a powerful element of the VISION-S Prototype, both serving as a symbol of the car itself and capturing Sony’s idea of “wrapping” people in an embrace and building connections with society.

Using color management to shape the car’s personality

A car has always been a combination of hardware and technology. While the technological aspect might be essential, an overly electronic vibe can be too much—especially for a project aiming to wrap people in a warm, welcoming embrace like the VISION-S Prototype was. Recognizing the need for a color scheme that would reflect a future-oriented outlook but still exude the warmth of familiar, everyday reality, the design team opted for “warm gray” as its brand color. Finding the right shade was a delicate process, a balancing act between nuances of exquisite quality and a tender touch. Eventually, though, the communication-design team arrived at a hue that painted the car’s identity just right.

Communicating the “real thing” through asset design

The fact that people would hardly have any chances to see the VISION-S Prototype in real life, however, presented the team with a challenge: how could the designers make the car seem “real” if the “real thing” was hard to get a direct glimpse of? The only way to do that was to foreground the reality element in the assets for showcasing the car online. In the concept video, for example, the technology pervading the car meshes with the actions of the central character, a protagonist in pursuit of creativity, and that positive synergy extends from the individual to the community. It pulls viewers in, forging emotional bonds with its narrative and expressive quality. For the main character behind the steering wheel, the team cast a creator who tackled challenges fearlessly with strong convictions—another reflection of the team’s basic approach to conveying the VISION-S Prototype’s central message. The rest of the assets followed suit; meticulous designs came together to communicate the reality of the VISION-S Prototype, each piece doing its part to echo the core concepts.

The open road ahead

The VISION-S Prototype made its long-awaited debut at CES 2020, the world’s biggest tech show. Utilizing the warm-gray scheme as a base color to kindle a welcoming warmth, the whole showcase—from the exhibit design to the backgrounds in the presentation slides—was carefully planned so that it rang with the spirit of the project. Taking center stage was the car itself, symbolizing Sony’s company-wide determination to make a positive impact on the evolution of the mobility sector.

All-wheel drive: How the car brings every design segment together

A car is a single product. But it’s also so much more. It’s a stunning array of countless products like sensors and other components, for example. It’s also a space for listening to music, watching movies, and consuming a full range of content. Given all that interplay, Sony sees a future with vibrant potential for collaboration among different specializations. Direct or indirect, those myriad connections could be vital in enhancing the value of tomorrow’s mobility. “When I saw business units, engineers, and designers all getting on the same page and even bringing outside partners into the mix,” designer Jogano recalls, “I could tell that everyone had the same goal—delivering emotional experiences. I could see great potential for human aspirations to pave the way to the future in this collaboration.” The VISION-S Prototype is an engine of growth for Sony’s design projects, driving collaboration and fueling constant expansion into new areas. As design sparks new visions of mobility, those new visions will again need to rely on design to engage with broader audiences. “Communication design moves in tandem with product design,” explains designer Maesaka. “Working together, I think both sides can make big things happen—and I’m excited to take on the bold challenges on the horizon.”

Chief Art Director Daigo Maesaka, Senior Art Director Nobuhiro Jogano

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BUGATTI CENTODIECI – First prototype for series development

The French luxury brand is paving the way for series production of its exclusive and unique hyper sports car.

Highly exclusive, distinctive and high-performance. At “The Quail – A Motorsports Gathering” in California in summer 2019, Bugatti presented another project reflecting its excellent coachbuilding expertise: the Centodieci. The Centodieci evokes automotive history: the unique project is a tribute to the legendary EB 110. This few-off project comprises production of just ten vehicles for an exclusive clientele. The next phase is about to start for the hyper sports car with a W16 engine and 1,600 PS: the first prototype for series development is currently being assembled.

The design of the Centodieci with its flat front, low-slung front spoiler and three-part air intakes reinterpret the shape of the most famous super sports car of the 1990s. The EB 110 was a key milestone on the road to the revival of the Bugatti brand in 1998 at Bugatti’s historic headquarters in Molsheim, ultimately resulting in the first hyper sports car of the modern era – the Veyron.

The Centodieci is Bugatti’s way of paying its respects to the Italian entrepreneur Romano Artioli and architect Giampaolo Benedini, the men who created the EB 110 some 30 years ago. “The challenge for us was not to get caught up in the design of the legendary EB 110 itself and avoid focusing solely on a retrospective approach. Our aim was to create a modern interpretation of the shape and technology of that time: but at the same time, we didn’t want to lose the charm and character of the EB 110.

After all, the super sports car is still fascinating today with its distinctive design and technology,” says Achim Anscheidt, Design Director at Bugatti. The biggest challenge: to transform the very flat, wedge-shaped and graphically virtually two-dimensional body of the EB 110 into a modern, three-dimensional sculpture to project the fascination of the super sports cars of that time into the modern age.

Since the world premiere of the Centodieci, the Bugatti development team has been working on the technical implementation of the strictly limited model. “Every newly developed vehicle poses an immense challenge, as we are creating a very small series that at the same time has to meet and even exceed all the quality and safety standards of a large series,” says André Kullig, technical project manager for one-off and few-off projects at Bugatti.

The engineers first delve into calculations for the body, aerodynamics, engine and transmission. They simulate the airflow on the vehicle and check all components down to the smallest screw.

Meanwhile, the design team checks the styling in close collaboration with the developers before finalising this and designing the surfaces. They adjust the curvature of the components according to the incidence of light so that the appearance is homogeneous in all lighting conditions – an elaborate development process. After well over a year of design and simulation, the team has now developed the first prototype.

“I was hugely looking forward to the first prototype of the Centodieci,” says Kullig, who has been with Bugatti since 2004 and was previously involved in projects such as the Divo and La Voiture Noire3. “Series development of a few-off project is an especially exciting challenge – and that is also true in the case of the Centodieci, which is a very design-driven project,” says Andre Kullig. His task is to ensure a perfect match between the exterior shape and the technology. Despite only producing ten vehicles, the Centodieci must meet all the same technical requirements as a Chiron.

“With the newly designed body, there are changes in many areas that we had to simulate using special computer programmes. Based on the data, we were able to establish a basic set-up as a starting point for series development and the first prototype,” explains André Kullig.

The team was recently able to successfully put the rolling chassis into operation on the site’s own roller dynamometer in the Molsheim Atelier and check all the drivetrain functions –to ensure the Centodieci can move onto the next stage of development. The next step is now to build the elaborate exterior. “With a high-performance hyper sports car like the Centodieci, it’s a matter of filtering out subtleties based on the modified requirements of a completely new exterior – something that requires highly focused and intense development work,” says André Kullig.

The technical challenges involved were enormous: an engine with eight litres of displacement and 1,600 PS generates high temperatures that require sophisticated thermal management. As in the EB 110, the engine is seen behind a transparent glass surface. So to ensure more efficient engine thermodynamics, the Centodieci has a wide air outlet opening and modified air flows. In addition, guide flaps around the five circular air inserts – positioned in the form of a rhombus – ensure sufficient air intake for the 16-cylinder power unit. As a result, the otherwise dominant Bugatti line, the C-line, gives way to a new design. The rear is formed into a large ventilation outlet opening defined by the eight rear light elements. Other development challenges include the new light elements and the rear wing design, which is permanently mounted in the style of the EB 110 Super Sport.

But even if the development team can simulate and test so much data on the test rigs, the Centodieci will also undergo dynamic testing. “In the next few months, in addition to building the exterior and running more advanced simulations in the wind tunnel, we’re very much looking forward to going out on the test track to start tuning the chassis,” says Kullig.

Within a few hours, all ten units of the Centodieci were sold out at a net price of eight million euros. The highly exclusive, hand-crafted small series will be delivered to customers next year.

 

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BETA TECHNOLOGIES REVEALED ITS NEW EVTOL PROTOTYPE ON FRIDAY DURING A 30-MILE

Beta Technologies revealed its new eVTOL prototype on Friday during a 30-mile (50-kilometer) airlift from its headquarters in Burlington, Vermont, to the flight test facility in Plattsburgh, New York. There, the new aircraft will continue the ground testing already begun in Vermont, with on-the-wing and hover tests and finally transitions between the two — all expected within the next few months.

Beta’s much-anticipated Alia eVTOL made its public debut on June 12 during its move to a flight test facility in New York. Eric Adams Photo

The fixed-rotor Alia, as the aircraft is presently code-named, succeeds the tilt-rotor Ava prototype, which was revealed in January 2019 and which the company used to validate propulsion and flight-control systems as well as better understand the aerodynamics of eVTOL in small aircraft. (Though Alia is relatively large compared to its eVTOL competitors.) The new 6,000-pound (2,720-kilogram) airplane is completely fly-by-wire and uses a 50-foot (15-meter) arched wing for lift in horizontal flight; four fixed rotors, mounted high at wing-level, for vertical flight; and a rear pusher prop to speed it along more efficiently in while moving forward. In that phase, the four rotors would be locked in their lowest drag position.

According to founder Kyle Clark, Alia already has months of tethered hover tests under its belt, along with a few high-speed taxi tests using a wheeled landing gear assembly — affectionately known as “the shopping cart” — in place of the airplane’s normal skids. “We completed high-speed taxi tests the other day, and that was a huge boost,” Clark said. “We were able to ensure that we have pitch stability in the airplane and can lift the nose wheels off the ground and put them back down. We’re penetrating the aerodynamics just in time for the move to Plattsburgh, where we can continue in earnest.”

The airplane was built at Beta’s hangar on the grounds of Burlington International Airport, but the steady cadence of commercial flights there, as well as Vermont’s Air National Guard unit flying Lockheed Martin F-35s twice a day, means that conducting a proper flight test program with several flights each day would be virtually impossible amid the ever-present risk of a new aircraft type needing occasional tows to and from the runway. Beta’s plan has all along been to transfer Alia to Plattsburgh, just as it did with Ava. That airport, a former U.S. Air Force base, has ramps and runways built to accommodate Boeing B-52 bombers, and thus plenty of room. It only has limited daily service and no control tower.

Throughout the flight test program, Beta will effectively serve as a private air taxi service, with company pilots shuttling personnel back and forth across the lake several times each day. Its 15-aircraft flight department includes five pilots total — most ex-military — with several additional team members in training. Clark and Nick Warren, a former U.S. Marine Corps pilot who flew Marine One for President Barack Obama, will be the initial test pilots for Alia.

Following Friday’s airlift (via a Sikorsky S-61 helicopter operated by Helicarrier), the flight test program will continue at Plattsburgh with more tethered hover test and high-speed taxi tests, then progress to horizontal flight while still on the wheeled landing gear, to fully understand the aircraft’s behavior as a conventional airplane, Clark said. Only then will it proceed to vertical flight, via untethered hovers initially then controlled ascents and descents, before folding in the transition from horizontal to vertical and back.

Alia being flown across Lake Champlain to its flight test facility in Plattsburgh, New York. Eric Adams Photo

The team hopes it will validate the work to make a clean, simple design. This was initially inspired by the Arctic tern, a bird with the longest migration on earth, with annual distances averaging around 45,000 miles (72,000 km). Its hyper-efficient aerodynamics are reflected in Alia’s arcing wings and tapering surfaces. Aerodynamicist Mark Page, of DZYNE Technologies, then helped hone Alia’s configuration and overall aerodynamics to meet the efficiency challenges of combined vertical and horizontal flight capability — absent the furious wing-flapping a tern can use to spring into flight.

“We selected a wing that would allow us to go slow enough to enable a compromise design between dedicated hover props and dedicated cruise props,” Page said. “If you want an airplane to both pick itself up in the air and push itself forward, you need to either change the pitch of the prop drastically, or it has to have that compromise between the two.”

Using variable-pitch propellers felt as off-limits as tilting props, as both required significant, heavy hardware, especially if there were eight, 10, or more propellers on the aircraft. Tilting wing systems proved even more problematic, introducing unappealing, asymmetrical stall characteristics as well awkward transitions to backward flight in hovers. The final product had to answer to all these challenges. “Because it’s VTOL, it’s no-joke loads — not just some secondary aerodynamic load,” Page said. “You’re picking up the whole damn airplane and contorting it around in gusty winds.”

To zero in on a viable design, Page focused on mitigating drag, increasing the tail size, and using a bigger wing, all of which improved stability and efficiency at low speeds. The engineers also created more robust propeller designs and torquier motors to enable immediate, precision control of the aircraft as it progressed through multiple phases of flight, as well as the ability to hover on low power, reducing the draw on the battery. The final design is extremely “economic,” Page said, with the least amount of moving parts while still enabling the transition, and the computer-controlled quad-rotor configuration allows for easy movement in all directions while in the hover mode.

Making Alia efficient in forward flight meant counteracting as much as possible all the tactics they deployed to optimize vertical flight, including the two outriggers on which the four rotors are mounted. They are aerodynamic in both directions, in that they don’t introduce their own turbulence or vortices, and they’re also designed to not amplify the acoustics, which protrusions that large that tend to do.

Another key challenge has been developing a control system that feels balanced, natural, and predictable for pilots in all modes of flight, with none feeling unstable and the controls never mushy or uncertain. Persistent control authority is key, as is harmony between all the control surfaces activated in each mode and during the transition. “The goal is a wide transition envelope, so that it transitions smoothly at a variety of speeds, altitudes, air densities, wind gusts, and controller forces,” Page said. “It has to accommodate imperfect conditions and imperfect piloting. Control harmony allows you to have that without becoming unstable. It makes it much more enjoyable for the pilot to fly, and much safer.”

Further tuning of the airflow helped achieve what Page thinks will prove to be a smooth, laminar aircraft with low drag and minimal aerodynamic interference from various interfaces on the airplane — such as landing gear, the tail assembly, and the intersection of the wing and the fuselage. The latter is a particularly problematic area, as it tends to cancel out efficiencies achieved elsewhere. To manage it, Page made the wing and body connection extremely blended. Not so much that it could be called a blended-wing-body airplane, but enough to diminish the losses.

All of this was validated through computer simulation, in particular via the X-Plane software developed by Laminar Research — a program that’s renowned for its highly accurate physics simulations. Creator Austin Meyer serves as an advisor to Beta, and contributed to its control system designs. Test pilot Camron “Arlo” Guthrie, who flew General Dynamics F-16s for the Air National Guard, has been leading the integration of this simulation technology to ensure it’s smoothly deployed for training as well as aerodynamic modeling and flight-control development.

“We have a totally new propulsion system and aircraft configuration, and these need unique avionics, displays, control interfaces, and more,” Guthrie said while demonstrating Alia’s flight simulator. “We’re now in our 10th iteration of our flight controls, and we’re constantly testing it all out here to see how it works. It’s a truly immersive, visual environment to work in.”

Guthrie said the advance to aggressive flight test will allow them to hone the algorithms and aircraft responses to pilot inputs — as well as help them make sure pilots can intuitively grasp what the airplane is doing. So far, flying the simulator has suggested that Alia should be an easy bird to fly. “It’s a light touch, just as you’d expect in a very high-performance airplane,” Guthrie said. “But it’s also a very low-workload airplane and has excellent handling qualities. To land you just get down to the stall speed of conventional airplanes, and then lean into it and you’re in horizontal flight.”

Alia’s flight test program will continue with more more tethered hovers and high-speed taxi tests before progressing to horizontal and then vertical flight. Eric Adams Photo

Beta’s first application for Alia will be to accommodate the mission of United Therapeutics, the pharmaceutical company that provided initial funding for Beta. United Therapeutics is developing manmade organs for human transplant, and founder Martine Rothblatt — herself an accomplished aviator who also sponsored the development of an electric version of the Robinson R44 helicopter by Tier One Engineering — wanted a reliable, green system for distributing those organs on-demand. Clark said the urgency of that mission compelled the Beta team to select a configuration that would generate the greatest range and be the most safe and reliable feasible system — that is, with the fewest amount of breakable moving parts, and also the most redundancy.

The motors Beta developed are essentially two motors in one for each rotor, so the likelihood of failure is dramatically reduced, and the minimization of moving parts will help speed certification — a challenge faced by all eVTOL manufacturers. It has also made the development process filled with far fewer unknowns. “We’re not trying to break the laws of physics,” said mechanical engineer Manon Belzile. “You might not be able to find the most lightweight solution right away, but we can certainly find solutions that will make this aircraft fly. Then the more we fly, the more we’ll be able to optimize everything. It’s an engineering challenge, but we know we’re going to get there.”

Fast on the heels of the United Therapeutics adoption, Alia will be adapted for commercial and industrial use, a role as an air taxi, and military applications. Beta is already proving integral to the U.S. Air Force’s Agility Prime effort to spur the development of electric aircraft. Along with Joby Aviation, it’s one of just two companies to recently advance to the next stage of development support from the Air Force in that effort.

Beta hasn’t estimated Alia’s range and other specifications formally yet, though it will say it’s targeting 250 miles (400 kilometers) and charge times under one hour. Its battery technology is still not fully disclosed, though its packs are designed and manufactured in-house from commercially available lithium-ion cells. Propulsion engineer Herman Wiegman, a former energy storage specialist for GE Global Research, said the program is viable with existing battery technology, albeit with careful integration.

“The battery pack is fundamental, and very integral to the success of the aircraft,” he noted. “But you have to be careful about the presence of the mass in the aircraft, how much frontal area is dedicated to the battery packs, how much drag will be induced because of their presence. One doesn’t simply purchase a battery pack off the common market and integrate it into an aircraft.” He added, however, that their mass can be advantageous, helping stabilize the aircraft against wind gusts while in a hover, for instance.

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