Looking Out #12
Two takes on Cybertruck, elevating humans and ships, capturing the sun and the spirit, and the importance of communication.
25 November, 2019
A newsletter about the auto industry, mobility, design, and the cultures that surround us. Brought to you by Joe Simpson and Drew Smith of The Automobility Group. If you like what you see, tell your friends!
**STOP PRESS**
Well, for this year at least.
For both of us, 2019 has been a huge year and, like your inboxes, we could do with a break.
But before we get in to the ultimate edition of Looking Out for the year, we’d like to thank you all for joining us (almost) every fortnight since we launched.
We started with a desire to create something together and precisely zero readers.
There are now 160 of you out there, and it means the world to us to know that something we do for the love of it has found an audience.
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All the best,
Drew & Joe.
Auto
Tesla and the CyberWTF
Why it’s interesting: Some will argue that the CyberTruck is another stoke of Tesla genius. The reality may be more troubling.
On the surface of it, the Cybertruck’s aesthetic speaks of a future so anti-human that one could easily think its arrival heralds the end of days.
Sure, arguments are being made for the low cost of production - should it ever occur - enabled by flat surfaces and a total lack of curvature.
But curvature begets conformity. It’s in this way that gently bowed bumpers and bonnets, despite being made of plastics and metals, can conform to a body in a collision. Curves can create a protective layer that can offer some semblance of mechanical sympathy for the human form.
None of that here.
Just cold-rolled, hard-edged stainless steel that can be wiped clean, should you be stupid enough to get in the Cybertruck’s way. No fuss, no muss.
But for Musk, there is indeed muss, and fuss.
Look beyond the laughable launch theatrics, the reskinned Yamaha ATV and inflated day one order numbers for a minute.
Tesla is still dealing with numerous clean air violations at its Fremont, CA plant, an ongoing investigation into whistleblower intimidation, and mounting accusations of Security and Exchange Commission violations.
One could easily make the argument that a hastily-designed, poorly-built prototype that taps in to the lizard brain of Tesla influencers is just what you need to distract distract the world from your own end of days.
| DS
Cybertruck take II: the defence
Why it’s interesting: car design has jumped the shark. It’s becoming culturally irrelevant. It needs stimulus like the Cybertruck.
Yes, we could have written about FCA and GM’s union trouble, the Mustang Mach-E (in fact I did, but shelved it), but instead we’ve decided to cover the Cybertruck twice. I can see you rolling your eyes. But its impact – like everything Tesla does – will be significant, I believe.
So here’s the defence. Automotive design has jumped the shark. It’s in a complete cul-de-sac today – a loop of self-referential, incremental styling tricks that no longer have any cultural influence and do little to improve the lives of the end user. Brutally harsh perhaps, but the last major, radical piece of car design – one that made people who weren’t into cars actually sit up and take note - was the 1997 Audi TT.
It’s 22 years old.
Car design will move forward in one of two ways, either by rethinking the entire value proposition for the user, and how it moves them (literally and metaphorically), or by rethinking how the vehicle goes together and questioning some of the fundamentals of mass-production. The latter is why I’m defending the Cybertruck.
Yes, it’s dangerous to take Mr Musk at face value based on past form, but the new 30x cold-rolled steel exterior, which basically can’t be pressed in the way normal car panels are, is the starting point for all the pointy-edged ‘what the fuckery’ you’re looking at. And it’s important because it means that – potentially – Tesla doesn’t have to invest in hyper-expensive tooling to press panels, which is where a huge amount of the investment in building a new car goes. In this way, the CuberTruck proposes nothing less than a reinvention of automotive mass production. Rafael Zammit, chair of the graduate transportation programme at CCS, puts it better:
“The reason I say it may be just the most brilliant thing ever is it may be the cheapest vehicle ever to manufacture. Stamping and tooling is extremely expensive, bending glass is extremely expensive.”
“It might be economically amazing for Tesla. Look at details on the exterior of the car, it’s so de-contented. There’s so little investment on the aesthetic side, it’s almost like they could pull a profit straight off, possibly even on the lowest model.”
To that end, the Cybertruck reminds me of the approach Chris Bangle first took at BMW, where he fundamentally began to questioning surface language and typology (X Coupe concept) and then later, questioning the need entirely for a stamped metal exterior (Gina concept). From a design point of view the Cybertruck seems much less sophisticated, but it’s asking similar questions, and generating a similar amount of negative commentary too. The form is dictated by a new production method – and that’s really interesting. Questioning this stuff is something more car makers should be doing but keeping the factories running – and changing the process as little as possible – drives decision making in the mainstream automotive world to the extent that they aren’t, and can’t. With the CyberTruck, just as it did with electric drive (how many said it’ll never work?), Tesla may provide the metaphorical kick up the arse.
The other point of defence for the Cybertruck stems from Musk and Van Holzhausen’s design teams’ clear understanding of the importance of popular cultural references, which are mostly absent from the rest of car design today. I couldn’t agree more with Drew that in some ways it appears anti-human. I don’t really want to live in the Cybertruck’s future dystopia either. And yet… the people who will buy this truck (I don’t think they’ll be F150 and Silverado buyers, with a 50-hectare ranch in Wyoming), grew up with films like Blade Runner and James Bond, The Spy Who Loved Me. It’s no co-incidence that Musk bought the Esprit Submarine from that film a few years ago, and it apparently resides in Tesla HQ. You can see the inspiration from films like this, and people outside of the car world will get those references, too.
Of course, the final execution jars the car designer in me. I’m far from convinced that we need any more huge vehicles which will mostly be driven by single occupants. And I’m not at all clear what or how the Cybertruck would improve the lives of those who might buy it, compared to an electric F150. It feels singularly un user-centric in its design. But then I’m sceptical it’ll actually come to market in the shape it’s in, if at all.
For me its value is in kick-starting a debate about the car’s cultural relevance, how vehicles are built in the future, and challenging the status quo. The Cybertruck will have significant impact in car design studios across the world for sometime to come. And for that I admire, and applaud it.
| JS
Mobility
Living in a utopian Culdesac
Why it’s interesting: A new mixed-use development in Arizona is rethinking urban planning from the human out. Cars not invited.
After World War Two, there was an explosion of urban development in the United Kingdom. In the place of bombed-out districts that owed their street plans to medieval times, came ring roads, car parks and pedestrianised city centres that spoke of a bright future enabled by the car.
My years in living in Coventry and travelling to Birmingham brought about a morbid fascination for these failed visions of modernity. The ring roads were carparks, the carparks were piss-stained Orwellian nightmares and the pedestrian areas seemed only to serve as an auditorium for the brutal winds that blew rain and rubbish past tired store fronts.
The rebuilt Coventry, and the purpose-built New Towns, such as Milton Keynes, were now a long way removed from their inspiration, the Garden City movement of the 1900s. While you could see evidence of what the planners were imagining, human behaviour, especially when it comes to the use of a car, is a harsh leveller of utopian ideals.
So I’m intrigued to see how the new community of Culdesac Tempe plays out.
Located to the east of Phoenix, a city not known for being pedestrian friendly, Culdesac Tempe aims to be the first car-free neighbourhood to be built from scratch in the United States.
Taking cars away means more landscaping than building, shops and services at walking distance, and a more thoughtful integration of micro- and macro mobility services, all things uncommon to more traditional urban developments in the United States.
Like the New Towns of post-war England, there’s more than a whiff of utopia about this vision of post-car America. But we do need a new way to think about our neighbourhoods, one which elevates the place human above that of the car. This is especially true for cities that have so-far depended on the car for their survival. This will be a development to watch.
Pair with The New York Times on cities reimagining their relationship with cars.
Image: NBBJ
| DS
Mobility on a different scale
Why it’s interesting: What happens when your 4000-passenger cruise ship breaks down in the Carribean and the nearest floating dry dock is out of action? You call the Dutch.
Of course we think of mobility as shorter journeys at the smaller end of the transport scale. But last mile problems occur at all points on the spectrum. After the loss of Grand Bahama Shipyard's largest floating drydock in April, when the Carnival Vista cruise shipped began to experience difficulties, a dry dock was needed to carry out repairs.
The BOKA Vanguard is the largest vessel of its type, a moveable platform, in effect, which can be submerged but then has enough capacity to lift and carry a vessel the size of Carnival Vista.
While not a fan of cruise ships per se, this is one of the most mesmerising videos I’ve watched in recent times, and a jaw-dropping piece of scale engineering. Watch as the Boka Vanguard lifts the Carnival Vista clean out of the water.
| JS
Design
Producing hydrogen with the heat of a thousand suns
Why it’s interesting: Heliogen’s new solar power system is powerful enough to decarbonise some of our dirtiest industries.
I grew up surrounded by concrete. My dad’s an expert in designing and building with it in its pre-cast form, and many a childhood weekend and vacation were spent visiting peering through the gates of competitors’ gates, or inspecting the installation of another bridge or building.
One thing we’ve never discussed, however, it the environmental impact of his work, and the enormous costs associated with producing cement, a key ingredient of his beloved concrete.
The production of cement is responsible for about 10% of global Co2 emissions, of which 40% is accounted for by burning fuel to produce the heat required to decompose limestone in to lime (the other 60% coming from the chemical decomposition itself).
Taking a step back, the production of cement and other materials like steel, glass and aluminium account for over 20% of global carbon emissions. Again, much of that comes from burning fossil fuels to provide the process heat for their manufacture.
So in a piece of good news for the environment, serial entrepreneur Bill Gross has publicly announced Heliogen, the first concentrated solar heat system to deliver heat of over 1,000 degrees centigrade. This makes it ideal for providing process heat for manufacturing.
While the operating principal is the same as previous concentrated power systems, Heliogen uses computer vision to more accurately target the mirrors that deliver the solar energy, leaving previous 500 degree systems in its wake.
So what about cars, you ask?
Well, at 1500 degrees, which is within reach for Heliogen, the company can apparently produce hydrogen with nothing more than the power of the sun.
Now, where’s my hydrogen V12-powered BMW prototype?
Image: Heliogen
RIP Ted Cullinan
Why it’s interesting: In a time where design and designers clamour for attention, a quiet genious of the architect world has just passed away, and we could all learn from his approach.
Unless you’re an architect in the UK, you’ve probably not heard of Ted Cullinan and his Studio Cullinan Architecture firm. The architect died, ages 88 last week. But this humble, award-winning architect – his legacy and the buildings his studio designed –are worth celebrating.
Jonathan Glancey’s obituary in the Architect’s Journal neatly summarises his impact and his key buildings, but three key aspects of Cullinan’s legacy and approach stand out.
In this age of short attention spans, when so much that is designed (including buildings) is shouting for attention, Cullinan’s work was quiet and un-assuming, but critically focused on making high quality spaces for the people who used them, while being sensitive to their surroundings. Glancey notes of his buildings that:
Somewhere in their subtle plans and sections, their appearance and sensibility, can be found traces of Schindler, Smithson, Aalto, Lasdun and Le Corbusier
To me – and here I’m biased by my own education and the influence of Peter Blundell Jones, he sits within a sphere of architects such as Hans Scharoon, Peter Hubner and Bolles+Wilson – whose work is important more because of their social consideration for the site and humans who use the building, as for the statements the buildings themselves create.
Perhaps Cullinan’s biggest influence on this young, budding London-based architecture student back in the early noughties, was his co-operative approach to working. Some of his best projects were close collaborations with engineers at Arup or Buro Happold – his Weald and Downland Gridshell, in particular. But the co-operative extended to the way he set-up his own company, with a strong focus on equity that continues to this day – the directors could only earn a maximum of three times the least-well paid.
But as the environment becomes the central issue of our time, Cullinan will perhaps be best remembered as the first British eco-architect, his approach to sustainability not dogmatic, but experimental – being among the first to use some new materials, adopt green roofs, but also consider all his works as having a strong social duty.
Doctors can bury their mistakes, while architects get outlived by theirs, so the saying goes. But the buildings that Cullinan leaves behind, tend to make the lives of those who use them and pass by them, and the environment they sit in, better every day. The world needs more designers like Ted Cullinan.
Image: Richard Learoyd
| JS
Culture
Clearing the confusion around ADS
Why it’s interesting: Consumer Reports, and American consumer advocacy group, is rallying the troops to standardise the language of driver assistance.
Technology and language create culture, just as much as they are born of it. So it’s perhaps unsurprising that the culture emerging around advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) is a bit of a confused clustercuss.
Tesla has its “Autopilot” while Volvo has “Pilot Assist”. While the former is a suite of ADAS features, and the latter - while in the same ballpark linguistically - is just the lane keeping assistance component of Volvo’s “Intellisafe Pro” package. Both set different expectations of the capabilities of the underlying technology.
So put yourself in the shoes of the average new car buyer: it’s not uncommon for a single ADAS feature to be known by 20 different names, depending on the manufacturer.
Fortunately, Consumer Reports has worked with J.D. Power, a consumer research company, and the National Safety Council to develop standardised names for 19 different ADAS systems.
Now we just need the industry, journalists and safety organisations to adopt them.
| DS
Ali G, social networks and free speech
Why it’s interesting: one of the most significant Comedians of our time, explores the concept of trust, satire, social media and the new twisted logic of ‘free speech’.
Ali G. Borat. Bruno. Characters with whom Comedian Sacha Baron Cohen has had significant impact on popular culture – particularly if you’re my age and living in the UK. But the comedian has recently focused his attention on something a little more profound – the twisted logic of ‘free speech’ and the role the social networks are playing in undermining some of the fundamental tenets of society:
If Facebook had been around in the 1930s, it would have allowed Hitler to post 30-second ads on his ‘solution’ to the ‘Jewish problem’.
Well worth 24 minutes of your time.
| JS
Thanks to Matt Farah, Alex Roy, Azeem Azhar and NAME for inspiring us this past fortnight.
And thanks to you, for inspiring us to write this every fortnight.
That's it for this issue. We love feedback (positive and negative), and to answer any questions you have. So email Joe or Drew and we’ll get back to you.
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