An emotionally intelligent autonomous car
Toyota
Concept-i communicates Toyota's future vision for mobility—one where humans develop a warm, ongoing relationship with autonomous vehicles that have intelligence and personality. Tellart engineered a “story engine,” a modular development platform that unified the car's complex interactive elements into a cohesive live experience. Concept-i debuted to great acclaim at the 2017 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
A car with empathy
The vehicle shell was designed by Toyota's Advanced Design team, Calty Design Research. They wanted to demonstrate the car's ability to develop a rapport with the driver. Vehicles are typically assessed more for their form than their user experience. The novel and UX-centric concept made it essential to bring the whole vehicle experience to life. Tellart was brought in to make that happen.
High-fidelity interactive prototype
Our “story engine” development platform integrates interactive audio, video, lighting and robotics systems in the physical design of Concept-i, to powerfully communicate the vehicle's abilities to Toyota leadership. The internal project was so successful that Toyota decided to debut the vehicle as a concept car at CES.
“This is what Toyota thinks driving will look and feel like in 2030. We're going to have autonomous cars, but we want them to be fun while they're autonomous. In other words, with this concept car, Toyota envisions a friendly future, not a foreboding one.”
Ian Cartabiano, Chief Designer, Toyota CALTY Design Research
“Concept-i, Toyota's conceptual debut at CES 2017, envisions a future where we form relationships with our self-driving cars—a future where our interactions aren't limited to a touchscreen in the dashboard, but through communicating with an integrated artificial intelligence that predicts and meets the passengers' needs.”
Antuan Goodwin for CNET
Immersive narrative
The resulting interactive narrative brought the car's physical model to life, offering a tangible experience of Toyota's future vision. This lays the groundwork for imagining more broadly how we can relate in positive ways to the intelligent objects that will increasingly surround us.
“The Concept-i autonomous car was unveiled by Toyota at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas as a true design concept; a canvas stitched with ideas for a warmer, more engaging, connected autonomous car of the future.”
Jim Resnick for Ars Technica
Highlights
- Project took three years to complete and included the development of two full-scale vehicles.
- Launched at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in 2017, with over 175,000 people in attendance.
- Redeployed at the Tokyo Motor Show 2017 and CES 2018.
- Included in Toyota's 2018 Winter Olympic advertising campaign, Start Your Impossible.
Team
Tellart worked closely with the following partners:
Creative and Project Coordination partners: Calty Design Research, Toyota Innovation Hub, Institute of Creative Integration, Bryan Senti, Big Block LA
Modelmaking, onsite build and installation partners: Phiaro Inc., GPJ, 02
Awards
Best of CES 2017 awards from:
