LA Design Challenge 2013: The Entries

The LA Auto Show Design Challenge entries have been revealed, featuring designs from nine of the world's top design studios.

JAC, Mazda, SAIC, Qoros, Subaru, Changfeng, Toyota and two groups from BMW DesignworksUSA have submitted designs for the challenge, themed ‘Biomimicry & Mobility 2025: Nature's Answer to Human Challenges'.

This year's brief asked for designs for a vehicle experience that identify issues like congestion, pollution, sustainability, flexibility and safety in designing a mobility solution that mimics nature to solve them.

JAC
HEIFEI (Harmonious Eco-Friendly Efficient Infrastructure)
Country Japan
Project lead Frederic Dupuis-Jung
Design team Keiji Omaki, Nicolas Blondeau, Keishi Yoshikawa
3D and Animation Kentaro Kaneko, Ryo Kojima, Dua Xiong, Hirofumi Kamezawa

JAC Motors' ‘HEFEI' (Harmonious Eco-Friendly Efficient Infrastructure), is a mobility solution inspired by an eco-system's self-sufficiency. The mobility network offers symbiosis between vehicles and their urban environment, with idle vehicles powering running vehicles, while a power grid supports both the entire system and automated traffic, decreasing accidents, traffic jams and energy loss.

Mazda
AUTO ADAPT
Country USA
Design director Derek Jenkins
Design team Jacques Flynn, Tim Brown, Seung Joong Kim

In reaction to the impending demise of the 2025 driver, Mazda has designed ‘AUTO ADAPT'. Studying biological adaptation and specifically how insects have adapted, the carmaker has created a vehicle with the ability to adapt from being fully autonomous to a manual machine. Mazda has designed this car for those who want retain the passion of driving.

SAIC
Mobiliant
Country China
Global design director Anthony Williams-Kenny
China design director Shao Jingfeng
Design team Xu Dengtao, Ling Yuzhou, Ji Zhiheng, Niu Wenbo, Zhang Mingxi, Qian Junlin

Inspired by an ant's distinctive body structure and the mutually beneficial relationship between ants and trumpet trees, SAIC Motors has designed the Roewe ‘Mobiliant'. It's a single-seat vehicle for urban public transit, which helps improve both transportation and operation efficiency for future urban ecological systems.

Qoros
Silk Road System
Country China
Head of design Gert Hildebrand
Design team Tim Pilsbury, Aditya Mahajan, Alex O'Brien, Rob Ho, Alex Segura, Jamie Barrett, Zhang Yue, Jihoon Seo, Clement Poireé

The ‘Silk Road System' acts as a control hub and is designed to allow vehicles to operate in harmony, actively eliminating accidents. Using the silk worm as its inspiration, Silk Road Vehicles and Silk Bots – in coordination with the overall system – will offer Shanghai drivers a foolproof, sustainable and waste-free mobility system.

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By Rufus Thompson