IED’s Shiwa is an origami-inspired self driving vehicle

Shiwa is the 12th concept car developed at IED’s the Master in Transportation Design. The vehicle is 4,700mm long, 2,000mm wide, 1,500 high and has a very long wheelbase of 3,660mm, which demonstrates the focus on the interior environment.

The Shiwa Concept photographed in the Anechoic Chamber at Divisione Velivoli, Finmeccanica S.p.A. – a facility used for planes and helicopters, with a 900 square meters area, a height of 20 meters and a inner volume of 18,000 cubic meters.

The project started from an idea by Korean student Youngjin Shim, who took her inspiration from origamis (the name Shiwa is a Japanese word meaning “fold”).

The origami-inspired surfacing

Starting from this concept, the vehicle was then developed by a team composed by her, Italian Luca Menicacci, Indian Jaykishan Vithalbhai Lakhani and nine other Master students.

The interior features rows of seats facing each other

 “The Shiwa cabin interior surfaces are designed to project multimedia contents towards the passengers, outdoors or to create an augmented reality.

“The cabin is designed to bring people together, thanks to the seats configuration disrupting the traditional passenger-driver hierarchy and delineating different spaces and uses and reinterpreting the concept of conversation and interaction inside the vehicle.

“Shiwa envelops the passengers both physically, in their sensory dimension and in all the relational aspects among themselves and with the outside world.”

The original seating layout of the Shiwa Concept

The drive system is AWD (All-Wheel-Drive) and uses 4 in-wheel brushless motors.

“Shiwa is an IICV – Individual Identity Companion Vehicle: it learns the identity, interests and habits of its occupants, it recognizes their features and adapts its behavior to circumstances and to passengers.”

Shiwa was developed under the coordination of Alessandro Cipolli, Master in Transportation Design Coordinator and Davide Tealdi, IED teacher.

The project was carried out under the supervision of Fulvio Fantolino, Coordination of Transportation Design.

Deign Team and technical partners

• Youngjin Shim (Korea); Luca Menicacci (Italy); Jaykishan Vithalbhai LAKHANI (India)
• Interior Design development: Jose Ignacio Martinex Flores (Ecuador)
• Project contributors: Chen LUJIA (China); Charles Frederic Nestor CARRUPT (Switzerland); Mikhail D. SOUZA (India); Qichang LI (China); Kejin PAN (China); Alparslan TURHAN (Turkey); Gaurav UDAVANT (India) and Honghu ZHANG (China), students of the Master in Transportation Design IED Turin AY 2014/15.
• Technical Sponsor: Cecomp, Newcast Services, Model Resine, OZ Racing and Pirelli

(Source: IED)