Toyota uBox Concept Design & Features
Over the past couple of years, automotive manufacturers have begun shifting their focus away from designing concept cars for millennials and toward the conceptualization of the perfect Generation Z vehicle, like the Urban Utility Concept. Toyota recently partnered up with the Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research (CU-ICAR) under the name Deep Orange to create one such concept vehicle. It was designed, engineered and hand-built by a group of graduate students belonging to the CU-ICAR group over the past two years, and we thought we’d dive into the Toyota uBox Concept’s design & features to give you a better idea of what it could offer.
[ READ MORE: What is the Toyota Urban Utility Concept Car? ]
“Deep Orange gives students’ hands-on experience with the entire vehicle development process, from identifying the market opportunity through the vehicle build. It’s like automotive boot camp for the real world, and it wouldn’t happen without industry partners like Toyota.”
– Johnell Brooks, Associate Professor, Clemson Graduate Engineering Program
Design
The uBox certainly doesn’t look like a conventional vehicle, much like most Toyota concepts that come down the pipeline. But as unconventional as it appears, it also has a quirky, appealing aura about it that would certainly pique the interest of plurals – the successors to millennials. With large wheels and a boxy design – hint hint – the uBox certainly looks futuristic, which is what most people like in a concept. But what’s truly impressive about the concept vehicle are its innovative features.
Features
- Versatile, rearrangeable interior cabin allows for wide array of uses
- Removable, reconfigurable, sliding-track seats
- Vents, bezels and trim that are not only customizable, but can 3D printed and shared
- All-electric powertrain allows for emission-free driving, and creates mobile power source
As you can see, the minds as Deep Orange are hard at work on creating the ultimate Generation Z or Plural vehicle, creating not only innovative design cues but revolutionary technologies and features for the interior. We cannot wait to see where the things showcased in this concept go, or for what comes next from Toyota & Clemson’s Deep Orange.