Perceptual Attributes in Product Design: Fuel Economy and Silhouette-Based Perceived Environmental Friendliness Tradeoffs in Automotive Vehicle Design

Abstract

The quest for improved fuel efficiency and environmental friendliness is transforming automotive vehicle design. In addition to new energy sources and management, new powertrain technologies offer increased flexibility in the spatial arrangement (packaging) and exterior shape (styling) of a vehicle. Design choices in packaging and styling are closely linked to consumer preferences, particularly those that influence consumers’ decisions about the objective qualities of a product (i.e., perceptual attributes). The ability to include perceptual attributes into a design optimization study is a valuable extension of the more traditional engineering approach that looks at only functional attributes. Previous work has studied the quantification of perceived environmental friendliness (PEF) in vehicle silhouette design. In this paper, empirically validated PEF silhouette attributes are included as constraints in a vehicle optimization model that maximizes fuel economy. Results indicate that there is a tradeoff between PEF preferences and the attainable fuel economy for a given vehicle, where increasing vehicle length leads to increasing PEF and decreasing fuel economy.

Impact of electromobility on automotive architectures

“…• a limousine with a silhouette designed in accordance with the results of Reid et al on the perceived environmental friendliness in automotive design [24]. Assuming that end users will need different car models to fulfil the needs of their everyday life, future drivers could modify their own car by simply replacing another car-body on the chassis thanks to the drive-by-wire technology.…”

Improving Design Preference Prediction Accuracy Using Feature Learning

“…These design preference models have been shown to be especially useful for the design of passenger vehicles, as demonstrated across a variety of applications such as engine design [20], vehicle packaging [21], brand recognition [22], and vehicle styling [3,6,23]. Connecting many of these research efforts is the desire for improved prediction accuracy of the underlying design preference model.…”

“…However, a customer may not purchase a vehicle solely due to interactions between these two sets of variables, e.g., a 50-yr old male prefers six-cylinder engines. Instead, a customer may purchase a product for more "meaningful" design attributes that are functions of the original variables, such as environmental sustainability or sportiness [3,4]. These meaningful intermediate functions of the original variables, both of the customer and of the design, are hereafter termed features.…”

Impact of electromobility on automotive architectures

“…• a family car with extra height to accommodate social changes such as ageing population; • a limousine with a silhouette designed in accordance with the results of Reid et al on the perceived environmental friendliness in automotive design [24]. Assuming that end users will need different car models to fulfil the needs of their everyday life, future drivers could modify their own car by simply replacing another car-body on the chassis thanks to the drive-by-wire technology.…”