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Mark: imagines what the world will drive
October 6, 2009 at 1:56 pm
Mark @ work
Mark Chrapla, Creative Designer
Formal training: Bachelor Degree with a major in Transportation Design – University of Cincinnati and Lawrence Central High School in Indianapolis, Ind.
Non-GM work experience: Sea Ray Boats (Fla.), Hot Wheels (Calif.) and Lexmark International (Ky.)
My role at GM Design Center is one that is professionally exciting as well as personally challenging. I feel what I do is the heart and soul of GM’s product development! In this capacity, my goal is to provide vehicles based on intelligent design that address people’s needs while providing expressive, distinctive bold styling.
To work at GM Design, employees need plenty of imagination, passion and creativity. I feel beautiful design – both inside and out – is how you best make an emotional connection with customers.
Design Center has some of the most talented and creative people. In this historic place, design teams work together, providing a diversity of perspectives for production and concept vehicles as well as advanced direction in automotive design. Our staff is diverse with people, culture and ideas. For example, we have designers and sculptors around the world from places such as China, France, Korea, Germany, Nigeria, United Kingdom, Russia, Switzerland and Venezuela.
Creative Designers create original vehicle design concepts including exterior and interior design elements. These elements include aerodynamic configuration and appearance, color and materials. Human factor principles and ergonomic data are also used in the design and development of vehicle interior concepts and components. Perspective sketches and renderings are made in 1/3-scale and full.
Automotive designers are gifted artists who use cutting-edge technology along with creative expression. All of these character attributes play an essential and integral role in GM’s success, and I am so glad to be a part of the creative Design team!
Editor’s note: This video was created in summer 2008 and is being repurposed for the blog. – Jordana
Rob
Oct 7th, 2009
Its great and all to say your team is diverse. Then describe all these paper work credentials and all these fabulous studies with metrics to sound all scientific and business like. But please for the sake of GM get the body team from the Holden HSV to make the much needed changes and approve any body designs for America. Just don’t let the Australians pick the bright colors and GM will be alright.
Pepe
Nov 1st, 2009
Thanks for your post! Glad to see there’s still people writing useful information rather than selling something. Regards, Pepe
William Davis
May 2nd, 2010
I’m a Cincinnatian, born and raised. I saw Mark Chrapla on The Science Channel’s Futurecars episode entitled “The Body”.
Mark, I just want to wish a fellow Bearcat good luck in your bright career! Your design idea was nice, from the body of the car to the multi-directional seating and digital interaction concept. It didn’t seem to leave room for conventional engine or battery space, but it still makes sense, being a FUTURE car. Advancements in technology will make it more than possible.
I have a not-so-futuristic idea for the functionality of the car. I’m sure that if I can think of this then you probably have – but I also understand how looking far ahead may cause some to overlook more simplistic options. Call it being too smart for your own good or just looking ahead to bigger and better methods of energy and efficiency, beyond current technology, but I know full well how “being really smart can sometimes make you seem stupid”, as my mother (also a UC alumn, 3 college degrees) once told me…in the sense that it can cause you to overthink in the direction of the complex or unknown to the point of not thinking of the obvious.
My first idea is to have rechargeable batteries lining the underbody of the car in a lightweight ‘blackbox’ type metal casing…similar to that used in airplanes. The body of the car – namely the roof – should be lined with solar panels that charge the batteries.
Secondly, an electric component should be added as another method of charging the batteries…a mix of solar vehicle and the GM EV1 program that was scrapped in the 1990′s (The ‘new’ Nissan Leaf is basically a nearly 15 year old GM idea reincarnated by a foreign auto maker…and it’s really no more advanced in mileage output or most other areas than the GM EV1, so Nissan is actually a bit primitive in their product).
Lastly, just like the wind-up and ‘shaking’ flashlights (i.e. The Forever Flashlight) that require no batteries, instead using kinetic energy to power the lighting system, the same system could be attached to the wheels via a chain-link or belt drive system. As the wheels spin, they crank energy back into the batteries (or maybe even a ‘reserve’ battery unit separate from the main batteries) so that you’re replacing the battery energy that you’re using, in whole or in part. Having a 3-way energy system – solar, electric and kinetic energy – along with the longest lasting, most reliable and dependable battery technology available, you could create a vehicle that has the weight to remain stable in tough road conditions and bad weather, the interior space to maximize comfort, enough available energy to power all the electronics, a plan B & C to power the batteries (increasing vehicle reliability), freedom from the woes of modern vehicles (engines, oil, gas, etc.), and zero emissions.
These features, coupled with high performance tires and an attractive, aero-dynamic body would make this one of the best cars on the market…in any era.
If possible, add fuel cell technology as a 4th method of drive energy. Any combination of these energy methods would make such a vehicle a synergistic nightmare for any competitor.
William Davis
May 2nd, 2010
I’m from Cincinnati, born and raised.
Mark, I just saw you on The Science Channel’s program Futurecars episode entitled “The Body”. I was really excited when I heard you say “from the University of Cincinnati”. I live in Mason, OH now near Kings Island. I’m from the Westwood area and graduated from Hughes High School. My mother is a Bearcat alumn and I’m a huge Bearcats fan. I know it was a few years old but I just want to say CONGRATULATIONS AND GOOD LUCK. Go Bearcats!
I really liked the concept car you presented on the show. The body was pretty nice – though fairly modern – and the multi-directional seating was an excellent idea, as well as the digital interactivity concept.
The first thing I thought of, after taking in the design as a whole, was that there didn’t seem to be room for the conventional drive system when you have 4 doors opening at NSEW points on the vehicle…no engine space. But this is a FUTURE car, so that makes sense, and it’s also a wonderfully ‘green’ idea.
I have several energy methods I’d like you to consider:
1. Solar
2. Electric
3. Hydrogen
4. Kinetic
I’m sure you’ve already considered them, and quite often, but how about all in one vehicle? That makes an attractive, functional and dynamic product even better.
You could use the solar panels on the roof of the car…even on the doors, especially the ‘North’ and ‘South’ (hood and trunk) doors. The batteries could be stored in a secured compartment on the underbody of the vehicle, encased in a ‘blackbox’ if you will, as used in aircrafts, to protect them from being damaged. The access point to the batteries could be underneath the seats inside the car, for easy replacement, if and when necessary. The batteries can be dispersed evenly throughout the bottom of the car or unevenly to balance with the weight of the interior layout.
A plug-in electric option for charging at home overnight, at charging stations around the city, at work, and on cloudy/stormy days when sunlight is limited or unavailable, is also a great idea. This would, of course, be like the EV1 of the 1990′s and the ‘new’ Nissan Leaf…which is just the reincarnation of the EV1 through a foreign auto maker with hardly anything new added since the EV1 except for a slightly more modern battery (and it still only provides roughly the same mileage as the EV1…so it’s ancient in comparison, considering the EV1 is nearly 15 years old). An interior plug-in option would also be a great feature, for emergency ‘jump-start’ kits to be used in the case of a dead battery (as are used now in a conventional vehicle when the battery dies). That could give you just enough juice to make it to an outlet or a charging station to ‘fill up’ completely.
Hydrogen Fuel Cell technology could also be included (if space for it can be made in the design…maybe a designated space in the underbody, seperate from the battery compartment(s)).
Kinetic energy could also be used to supply energy back to the batteries through a crank system using either a chain-linked or a belt drive system attached to the wheels of the vehicle. This would be similar to the Kinetic flashlight which operates without the use of batteries, as it is either wound up (i.e. the Companion AM/FM Crank, Solar Radio Flashlight & Cellphone Charger) or shaken (i.e. Excalibur Electronic Forever Flashlight H422) to produce electric energy, which is then used to power the flashlight.
These options, used all together or in some combination of the 4, would create multiple ways of providing energy to power the vehicle and its on-board electronics, thus making the car more reliable by providing a potentially endless supply of power for transportation and digital communication.
All of these methods, barring the hydrogen fuel cell option (unless there’s a way to recycle the water exhaust as an additional power source to either create electricity and feed that into the batteries or recycle it and split the hydrogen atoms from the oxygen atoms for reuse), could be linked into the batteries using a color coded wiring system and tunneled through the skeleton or the body of the car. Not much space is needed for these options.
Getting rid of a bulky engine and the need for oil and fuel, eliminating harmful emissions, along with a high-tech interior, beautiful LED lighting color patterns on the controls, performance tires for style and comfort, an aerodynamic body and additional safety features such as airbags and a 5-star crash-test rating, this would not only be a very attractive vehicle, but one in very high demand.
You sit at work knowing that your car is being charged by natural sunlight. You sleep at night knowing your car is in your garage or driveway being charged. You drive your car, knowing that your car’s energy is – in whole or in part – being kinetically replaced or supplemented while you’re in motion. You drive your car knowing that the only exhaust, if any, is water.
With so many methods of power aboard a single vehicle, this would be the car to exceed all cars. Think of the extra mileage you could get from such a vehicle…likely far greater than that of today’s gasoline vehicles. 34 MPH in a 16 gallon tank of gasoline = 544 miles maximum per tank before refueling is needed. Operating on solar, electric, kinetic and hydrogen energy in one vehicle could increase that EXPONENTIALLY; and with the advancements in nano-technology, making batteries and microchips smaller, more powerful, less apt to overheating and failure, and thus more reliable, the sky is the limit. It doesn’t matter if your vehicle drives on 4 wheels, a cushion of air, or a mile above ground with wings and/or propellers…these methods of energy can play a major role as the catalysts to such methods of transportation.
Just a few things to consider for any of your current and future concepts, if you haven’t already incorporated them into your designs and ideas. I wish you the best of luck in all you do. Hopefully these ideas can come to life in an American vehicle to help boost our economy and make GM the leader in the automotive industry.