Accelerated vehicle development process
First Claim
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1. A method of designing and manufacturing vehicles comprising:
- establishing a standard vehicle chassis design including a structural frame;
a suspension system mounted to the structural frame;
at least three wheels rotatably mounted to the suspension system;
an energy conversion system mounted to the structural frame, operably connected to at least one wheel, controllable by wire;
a by-wire braking system mounted to the frame and operably connected to at least one wheel; and
a computer operatively connected to the energy conversion system and braking system, wherein said standard vehicle chassis design includes a common, standardized interface system having body connection components arranged to facilitate selective attachment of any of a plurality of different body types to the standard chassis;
manufacturing a plurality of chassis in accordance with said standard vehicle chassis design, independently of vehicle bodies; and
after said step of manufacturing a plurality of chassis, designing and manufacturing a plurality of different bodies having different body types and configured to conform to said standardized interface system for attachment to said manufactured chassis.
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Abstract
An accelerated vehicle development process includes establishing a common, standardized interface system whereby different types of vehicle bodies may be attached to a single chassis design. Chassis and bodies are designed, manufactured and validated independently of each other in accordance with the standardized interface system, thereby accelerating the development process. As new bodies are designed to mate with the previously manufactured and validated chassis, the newly designed bodies may be developed more quickly in response to market demand and attached to the previously validated chassis.
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Citations
19 Claims
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1. A method of designing and manufacturing vehicles comprising:
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establishing a standard vehicle chassis design including a structural frame;
a suspension system mounted to the structural frame;
at least three wheels rotatably mounted to the suspension system;
an energy conversion system mounted to the structural frame, operably connected to at least one wheel, controllable by wire;
a by-wire braking system mounted to the frame and operably connected to at least one wheel; and
a computer operatively connected to the energy conversion system and braking system, wherein said standard vehicle chassis design includes a common, standardized interface system having body connection components arranged to facilitate selective attachment of any of a plurality of different body types to the standard chassis;
manufacturing a plurality of chassis in accordance with said standard vehicle chassis design, independently of vehicle bodies; and
after said step of manufacturing a plurality of chassis, designing and manufacturing a plurality of different bodies having different body types and configured to conform to said standardized interface system for attachment to said manufactured chassis. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
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5. A method of designing and manufacturing vehicles comprising:
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establishing a standardized body-chassis interface system wherein vehicle chassis are provided with a body-attachment interface having load-bearing body-retention couplings and at least one control signal receiving electrical connector positioned at predetermined locations in the body-attachment interface to receive different types of vehicle bodies, and wherein different types of vehicle bodies are provided with a chassis-attachment interface having chassis-retention couplings complementary to said load-bearing body-retention couplings and at least one control signal transmitting electrical connector complementary to said control signal receiving electrical connector at corresponding predetermined locations in the chassis-attachment interface;
designing and manufacturing vehicle chassis conforming with said standardized body-chassis interface system; and
concurrently with said designing and manufacturing of vehicle chassis, and independently thereof, designing and manufacturing vehicle bodies conforming with said standardized body-chassis interface system. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A method of designing and manufacturing vehicles comprising:
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predefining a vehicle body-chassis interface system wherein mechanical and electrical connection components are required to be in predetermined spatial positions relative to each other in a body-attachment interface on a chassis and in corresponding predetermined spatial positions relative to each other in a corresponding chassis-attachment interface on any body to be attached to the chassis, and after said predefining step, designing and manufacturing vehicle chassis conforming to said predefined vehicle body-chassis interface system and concurrently designing and manufacturing vehicle bodies conforming to said predefined vehicle body-chassis interface system, said vehicle chassis and vehicle bodies being designed and manufactured independently of each other. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. A method of designing and manufacturing vehicles comprising:
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predefining a vehicle body-chassis interface system wherein mechanical and electrical connection components are required to be in predetermined spatial positions relative to each other in a body-attachment interface on a chassis and in corresponding predetermined spatial positions relative to each other in a corresponding chassis-attachment interface on any body to be attached to the chassis; and
after said predefining step, designing and manufacturing vehicle chassis and vehicle bodies conforming to said predefined vehicle body-chassis interface system, said vehicle chassis and vehicle bodies being designed and manufactured independently of each other, and said bodies including at least three different body styles.
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19. A method of designing and manufacturing vehicles comprising:
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establishing a standard vehicle chassis design including a structural frame;
a suspension system mounted to the structural frame;
at least three wheels rotatably mounted to the suspension system;
an energy conversion system mounted to the structural frame, operably connected to at least one wheel, controllable by wire;
a by-wire braking system mounted to the frame and operably connected to at least one wheel; and
a computer operatively connected to the energy conversion system and braking system, wherein said standard vehicle chassis design includes a common, standardized interface system having body connection components arranged to facilitate selective attachment of any of a plurality of different body types to the standard chassis;
manufacturing a plurality of chassis in accordance with said standard vehicle chassis design, independently of vehicle bodies; and
after said step of manufacturing a plurality of chassis, designing and manufacturing a plurality of different bodies having different body types and configured to conform to said standardized interface system for attachment to said manufactured chassis, wherein said different body types include at least three types of bodies taken from the group consisting of sedans, pick-up trucks, convertibles, coupes, vans, station wagons and sport-utility vehicles.
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Specification