Yanko Design » Automotive

Bike Thief, Don’t Even think About It Mister

Radhika Seth — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 09:00:44 +0000

Bike Thieves move on to your next victim, because this bicycle has BROKEN WHEELS! This exact feature is what keeps the bike safe. I love this ingenious idea that kind of breaks down the inner rim of the wheel, so that it becomes an unstable cycle with wonky-wheels that no one can ride. Anti-Theft Collapsible Bike Wheel; that’s what you call this baby.

You need to put the key into the wheel to collapse the internal dial and lock it into the “broken” position. Reverse the process to get your wheel back into shape!

The gearing system is inside the injection molded wheel and the lock for the wheel uses spring loaded bolt system.

Super! No More Bike Thieves!

Designer: Carmond Lai

Dare To Dream Luxury?

Radhika Seth — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 09:30:25 +0000

Recession time over or not, you need to pull up your socks and work your butt to afford the sweet luxuries of life. The happy Brady Bunch here makes no bones of the fact that their Vivace26 Concept Speed Boat is only for the Haves; poor folks be damned! The two-seater high-speed luxury vessel, boasts of specs that take into account technology advances that have already been discovered and developed.

V12 TDI diesel engines from the Audi Rio Lemans Prototype and using Arneson surface drives as propulsion, the Vivace 26 can produce up to 650 horsepower and can touch speeds of 80+ knots. The Vivace 26 features a fully convertible top, joystick steering, steering, OLED display screens and hull stabilizers.

A unique feature in the design is the hull, which has Stabilizers to channel the water from the bow to the stern. This allows the boat to “grab” onto the water when traveling at high speeds.

Anyone Tempted?

Designers: Garret Miller, Heather Witkop, David Robinson, Matt Wysenski, Thomas Wright & Julian Romero

Riding The Deep Blue Seas Smoothly

Radhika Seth — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 09:30:56 +0000

The Vif Argent Yacht combines the principles of foiler and glider so that you can have smooth sailings at high speeds with maximum efficiency. Killer combo, right! The boat floats on its hull while at rest and then deploys its gliders during acceleration, to help attain high speeds (over 50 knots). To ensure the smooth ride, the cabin is actually cruising above the waves at a height. The suspension system, which is integrated into glider folding arms, absorbs the shocks and vibrations of the wave impact.

Propulsion is made of two high performance diesel engines, to provide power and fuel efficiency.

Designer: SVDesign

One Liter Racing Madness

Chris Burns — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 07:01:52 +0000

What kind of vehicle race would you see if each driver were limited to only one liter of gasoline? Thats what Moritz Martin is asking right here. Inspired by growing interest in speed and energy efficiency races, Martin’s concept challenges the driver to summon their tactical intelligence and skill to finish the race using only the energy of one single liter of fuel. Setting the race on thin water film areas and projecting the track on in interior display of the vehicle, this type of racing’s only been seen thus far in science fiction arcades.

Racing has become stale (Nascar fans throw popcorn and soda cups like rain) SO this is what’s needed to spice it up!

Inspired by the insanity of Swamp Buggy, Land Speed Record Races and the Eco Marathon.

Skimming across the water using almost no energy at all, retractable wheels for easy interchangeability between glide and drive. Wheel-mounted air nozzles for frictionless steeering, steering unit programmable to operate multi-directional operations all at once.

I can’t imagine how this wouldn’t be totally engaging and fun!

Designer: Moritz Martin

Welcome Blocks of Power

Chris Burns — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 07:01:44 +0000

So you’re driving along in your electric car, right? And you’re thinking gosh, now that I have this Hybrid or whatever I am driving today, I feel like I should go another step. How can I generate more power? How? I need to not only generate enough energy for me to drive, I need to generate power for the buildings I’m driving past. “Carbon Zero” road block system has the answer for you!

So what have we got here? Positive and negative. Energy, not consequences. It’s all good, it’s all green.

This system is composed of several elements. The only one you’re going to see is the blocks on the road. As you drive over these blocks, the pressure from your vehicle pushes the blocks down, creating kinetic energy. N-type silicon and P-type silicone work together like a battery, creating a DC-direct current. This energy is then turned into AC-alternating current, which can be used for powering electric devices in the homes and businesses near the road.

Makes sense? Yes. Let’s see it work now.

Designer: Jaeyong Park

Sticky Carpool Window Clingys

Chris Burns — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 07:01:36 +0000

A carpool concept for a perfectly trusting world. That’s what this is. Our designers here, Gwang Hoon Lee, Chan Il Jung, have concocted a simple window-sticky device that displays statistics about the contents of the vehicle it inhabits. It shows availability, maximum number of passengers, destination, and ETD estimated time of departure. Sound just fine to you?

It’s also got sleepy Mondays mode (and every other day if you get sleepy) and a BRB system so people can know that you’ll be returning soon to your car.

I’m skeptical! But I will say that self-contained, solar-powered systems like this are an eye-opening bit of technology if they come around. I can see big things coming of this.

Designers: Gwang Hoon Lee, Chan Il Jung

Audi Avatar Supercar

Chris Burns — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 07:01:11 +0000

This is the car that, as the designer describes, is the car and the embodiment of fun that rightfully belongs to the “computer generation.” Am I a part of that generation? I hope so. Computers seem pretty cool to me. This Audi is called the “Avatar” and it’s a futuristic fantasy. Can you see the wheels? They’re there! I don’t know how they turn, but they’re there!

This bad boy is a concept car that’s got three complete bucket seats. The designer lets us know that the Avatar is an electric powered supercar straight from the year 2032. It aims to capture the joy children of our generation had playing “future” racing games in their kidlike youth. It’s got a long range supercharge-ion battery driving 4 in-wheel electric motors.

It’s got a light, or even ultra-light aerodynamic body, and the ability to accelerate 0 to 100km/h in 2.9 seconds. It reaches speeds of 360km/h! It’s a fast car if you didn’t know such a thing. And it looks oh-so-wild. I wonder if it can fold up those wings and fly? Probably needs an anti-gravity pad installed.

Designer: Edwin Conan (Yi Yuan)

Eco Friendly Aston Martin Volare Concept

Long Tran — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 08:50:56 +0000

The transition to more eco-friendly vehicles is relatively easy for mass volume vehicles but what about luxury manufacturers? How can they maintain their luxe and driving appeal while embracing the new “green”? The Aston Martin Volare proposes an easy fix by adopting fuel cells. The stacks are located in the front while the tanks are stored in the rear above the car’s axle – perfect weight distribution.

I like the idea but saying a vehicle will be powered by fuel cells is almost a no brainer. It’s been done so I just wished this concept offered a little something more than Vantage DNA. The proportions are slightly tweaked with much crisper shoulder lines and a floating rear deck but it’s not enough. In fact the rear looks almost Scandinavian. All in all, good idea.
Designer: James Trim

Rolling Down The Hill

Radhika Seth — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 11:31:23 +0000

eRinGo is predictably this rotund vehicle that can go from a one-wheel car to a three-wheeler, depending upon the deep curves you wish to take. The main central wheel balances the car while in motion, and its panels house the electric motors and other machinery of the car. The two-seater has two steering wheels, allowing either of the drivers to take control. Naturally when one steering is being used, the other gets locked. Two smaller-side wheels get deployed intuitively to stabilize the car when parking or hitting the curves.

As a concept “Green” vehicle it looks neat in this round avatar, but will the design functionality actually work, we really can’t predict.

Designer: Mohammad Ghezel

Turtle Wrench

Chris Burns — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 07:02:14 +0000

Bloody ol’ genius that’s what we’ve got here! It’s a new way to take off a tire. Stick with me here, this is really neat. You take this “Turtle Wrench,” right, and you attach it to your wheel: it connects to all of your wheel bolts at once. Now the wrench has four arms sticking out, one of them each a wrench that correlates with a bolt. You drive forward one full rotation, and as you push forward each wrench, it loosens a bolt.

Did you get all that? You should, because it’s flippin awesome. Look at the pictures below and tell me if you know what’s going on here. Also there’s a prototype whipped up by the designer already, so hopefully I can have one by late winter — I’m not a fan of that first crank, if you know what I mean.

Designer: Fabiano Pottes