Background

A commercial vehicle is a motor vehicle used for transporting goods or passengers. The classification of commercial vehicles varies from country to country, but broadly there are four categories: light commercial vehicles, medium commercial vehicles, heavy commercial vehicles, and extra-heavy and special-purpose commercial vehicles. Light and medium commercial vehicles normally have two axles and don’t require the extensive training nor the specialised licensing that is required to operate heavy and extra-heavy ones. Vehicles vary in their degree of autonomous control. Most vehicles on the road today are controlled entirely by the human driver, with some assistance such as radar for parking. Increasingly we see vehicles with some degree of autonomy that rely substantially on the human driver but will have automatic braking, lane control, and so forth. In future, we can expect to see fully autonomous vehicles on the roads that are entirely automatically controlled and don’t have a driver at all. Autonomous vehicles will make use of sensors and advanced robotics to navigate their environment. The goal is to replace the human operators who are doing these tedious jobs, to reduce costs, to increase efficiency, and improve safety.
 

The design brief

Design an electric-powered fully autonomous commercial vehicle for the transport of goods or the provision of services within cities or in rural areas. Your commercial vehicle may be either a light, medium, or heavy commercial vehicle, general purpose or specialised, as you wish. Your commercial vehicle should navigate and drive around autonomously, yet it may accommodate passengers to deliver the services or goods, as required. For example, a delivery vehicle might not have passengers, whereas a plumber’s van will have space for at least one passenger, the plumber. Design the exterior and interior of the autonomous commercial vehicle. Show how it works: how cargo and passengers are accommodated, how the motor and drivetrain fit, and so forth. Build a small-scale model of your autonomous commercial vehicle design concept exterior and interior. Alternatively, you may build a computer-aided design (CAD) model of your design concept, if you prefer. Work on this project in a small team with a group of your classmates.
 

The design thinking process

​​​​​​​Follow the six stages of the design thinking process to ensure that you are thorough and do everything necessary to succeed in your design project. First, you endeavour to understand the design topic and EMPATHISE with the needs of the users. With that understanding, you can DEFINE what is essential to the product or system that you are designing. Then you IDEATE, that is, you creatively come up with ideas and develop them. The next step is to PROTOTYPE your chosen design solution in a physical form and improve it through trial-and-error. Then you TEST your design idea to elicit the opinions of users. And finally, at the end of the process, you REFLECT upon your project to benefit from the experience. Use the appropriate methods from the Design Thinking for Schools website as you proceed along the design thinking process.
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Note for teachers

Read the guide for teachers on Safety for the PROTOTYPE Stage for Level IV to safely supervise this design project.