Tag Archives: uber

Nike, Google, Tonal, Uber, Peloton: How Whipsaw’s Global Vision as a Design Studio is Changing Brands and Worlds

Posted on by

Dubbed “Design’s Secret Weapon” by Fast Company, Whipsaw’s designs are so ubiquitous they simply can’t be ignored. With over 300 design awards, and nearly a hundred clients comprising the likes of Meta, Google, Samsung, Dell, Ford, Sony, and Peloton, Whipsaw’s work exists across multiple industries, covering the kind of breadth that most design studios only dream of. The studio was founded by Dan Harden in 1999, headquartering in San Francisco, where Whisaw established inroads into what would eventually become the Silicon Valley of the world… However, its impact can be seen across diverse industries including consumer electronics, housewares, computing, robotics, medical, scientific, and commercial products.

This spotlight hopes to capture Whipsaw’s approach to design by chronicling some of its latest work and analyzing the design trends that emerge from them. Whipsaw’s multidisciplinary team of strategists, designers, and engineers work across four categories, covering all aspects of a product journey from research & strategy to industrial design, visual design, and mechanical engineering. In October last year, Harden even announced the formation of the Whipsaw Design Lab (WDL) – a space for designers to truly explore the potential of creative thinking without the constraint of technology, budget, or a ‘client concern’. “WDL has no requirements, clients, timelines, or limits. Just pure Design spelled with a capital D. And most of all, no compromises,” he says.

View More Projects on Whipsaw’s Website
Click Here to see Careers at Whipsaw

Tonal Strength Training System

Created over a period of 3 years, Tonal combines exercise with technology and machine learning to bring the gym trainer to your home. Tonal is a wall-mounted fitness device that offers a unique combination of modern hardware and personalized coaching. Unlike traditional gym equipment that relies on large metal plates and gravity, Tonal uses an electromagnetic resistance engine to provide smooth and precise weight in single-pound increments. This is supplemented by an intelligent touch-sensitive display that acts as your feedback machine, allowing you to measure every ounce of progress as you get through your reps.

The device was a result of a 3-year collaboration between Whipsaw and Tonal. Every aspect of its design was meticulously crafted to ensure optimal performance, durability, and aesthetics. When not in use, Tonal is sleek and unobtrusive, blending seamlessly into any wall. However, when activated, its arms pivot out on vertical columns, allowing for a wide range of exercises, including standing lat pulldowns, low squats, and lateral chest flys. Tonal marks a steady shift in home-based exercise, an emerging trend in the fitness space that also propelled companies like Peloton to fame.

Kabata Smart Weights

Yet another innovation in the fitness space, Kabata smart weights are a revolutionary set of adjustable-weight dumbbells designed for strength training. With just a simple turn of a knob, the weights can be instantly adjusted from 5 to 60 pounds. The weight plates are locked or unlocked together using a hidden camshaft mechanism, allowing you to assemble the desired total weight in 5-pound increments. The Kabata weight handles are equipped with advanced sensors that can detect movement, acceleration, angular velocity, and position, making it easier for you to optimize your workouts. Additionally, the handles feature haptic drivers that vibrate to correct your physical form and motivate you during your workout.

The Kabata isn’t your average pair of weights. The Kabata system is fully connected and comes with a mobile app that incorporates data analytics and predictive AI to automatically adjust the weights for you in tailored workout programs. The app pulls data from the weights to your smartphone, allowing you to access training programs, monitor key performance metrics, and share your workout with your community. This sleek system is a great example of how Whipsaw aims at modernizing a conventional product category by relying on bleeding-edge technology to truly uplift a product’s UX.

Tile Bluetooth Trackers

Creating a Bluetooth Tracker isn’t easy when it’s an absolutely new category. Tile’s first devices were sold in 2013, giving it a significant edge over other trackers like the AirTag, which came nearly 8 years later. This meant pretty much starting with an entirely blank page, which was the challenge for Whipsaw and Tile. The companies have been close collaborators ever since, working on all the newer SKUs like the Mate, Sticker, Slim, Pro, and Ultra. Each Tile device offers a greatly increased finding range of up to 400 feet, a louder ring, and voice-enabled finding through Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. “We designed these trackers in several form factors with optional attachment methods in order to fit every use case, whether attached to a key chain, in a wallet, or directly adhered to your favorite items,” say the folks at Whipsaw. “There are many design improvements from our previous 2018 line, including smaller dimensions, lighter weight, and softer forms that feel great in the hand.” Tile was recently awarded #5 on Fast Company‘s list of Most Innovative Companies 2021.

Google Trekker Backpack for Google Earth

Google’s Trekker backpack is a mapping device that works in tandem with Street View, Google Maps, and Google Earth. It captures and creates interactive maps of locations that are inaccessible to vehicles, such as nature trails, iconic landmarks like Machu Picchu, and crowded city centers. The Trekker is a valuable tool for cartographers due to its unique mobility, and it is currently being used to document some of the world’s most magnificent places for everyone to learn about and enjoy. It’s even spawned a sub-culture of travelers committed to revealing new frontiers and sharing their experiences with the global community.

The backpack is an all-in-one system that includes a 360-degree camera array, two positioning LIDARS for mapping terrains, a computer with heat sink cooling, and two hot-swap batteries. For Whipsaw, the challenge was to create a portable solution that was waterproof, highly durable, and worked seamlessly. Additionally, it was also prudent to make the Trekker backpack comfortable for extended wear time, ensuring it was well-balanced, lightweight, and easy to put on and take off.

Koda AI Robot Dog

In 2018, Whipsaw was approached by KODA Inc. to collaborate on a project integrating their fusion multi-processor and AI-based software. The result was the KODA Robot Dog, the first high-end domestic robot dog to run on a decentralized blockchain network. Equipped with an 11 teraflop processor capable of A.I. machine-learning, the KODA Robot Dog relied on a hive-mind of sorts to optimize its behavior. It even sported four 3-dimensional surround-view cameras and 14 motors, including in the neck and tail, giving it dog-like gestural qualities. By sharing data with other KODA dogs on the network, the robot was able to learn from experiences it had never encountered before. For example, a KODA dog in Phoenix could learn how to avoid slipping on ice by receiving knowledge from other KODAs based in colder climates like Anchorage, Alaska, or Toronto, Canada. Whipsaw’s design ensured that the KODA Robot Dog retained a friendly, cute demeanor despite its incredible capabilities.

Bear Robotics Servi Food Service Robot

Sort of like a Roomba for hospitality, the Servi automates table-waiting with its unique design that’s built to help with restaurant workflows by both delivering food to tables and clearing the tables at the end of a meal. When guests arrive, Servi promptly welcomes them with a friendly voice and courteous gestures. Customers can easily place their order with Servi, who then transmits it directly to the kitchen. Once the order is prepared, Servi is equipped with one of her two top platforms to efficiently deliver the food to the designated table. While navigating, Servi adeptly avoids any individuals or obstacles in her path. After the meal, diners can conveniently place their dishes in Servi’s bottom bin as she returns to the table.

Whipsaw considered every type of restaurant environment while developing Servi’s custom design—from cramped and crowded rooms to gleaming banquet halls with spotless interiors—and made her as safe, quiet, and washable as possible. “We also packed a ton of technology into her small footprint so she never gets in the way,” the company says.

Hisense Projector

We’ve covered a fair number of projectors on YD, and UHT projectors seem to overwhelmingly be the future of the technology. They require no distance from your projection surface, and are capable of vivid, highly detailed imagery, while also projecting audio from in front of you to match the visuals. Hisense and Whipsaw worked extensively to develop a line of UHT projectors with timeless beauty, quality materials, unique form, and exquisite detailing. “Throughout this project, our primary goals were to innovate on product configurations that would be compact enough to compete with standard TVs and to create aesthetic solutions that would excite internal stakeholders and ultimately end-users,” say the Whipsaw team.

PacBio Revio™ Sequencing System

Proving that there’s really no industry that can’t benefit from Whipsaw’s approach to design innovation, the company worked with PacBio to help design Revio –  a gene sequencing system that can be utilized for various purposes such as human genetic analysis, cancer research, and agricultural genomics. The Revio has the capability to sequence up to 1,300 whole human genomes annually for less than $1,000 per genome. Whipsaw collaborated with PacBio to create a new user interaction model and a stunning industrial design for the instrument, which includes an intuitive user interface.

Revio’s bold monolithic design creates an impression of solid reliability, sophistication, and cutting-edge tech. Meanwhile, the black towering box comes with a hint of color, tying in with PacBio’s own visual branding. “Every detail was meticulously crafted for perfection, from the single sheet of back-painted Gorilla glass on the sliding door to the Bugatti-inspired woven wire ventilation grill. The fit and finish are exemplary, with premium materials and textures throughout.”

View More Projects on Whipsaw’s Website
Click Here to see Careers at Whipsaw

The post Nike, Google, Tonal, Uber, Peloton: How Whipsaw’s Global Vision as a Design Studio is Changing Brands and Worlds first appeared on Yanko Design.

This futuristic Uber cab was designed like a TARDIS – compact on the outside, spacious on the inside

Posted on by

Purpose-built as a ride-hail car, or a taxi cab to be specific, the Arrival Car has the footprint of a small vehicle, but the spacious legroom of a much larger automobile.

Created in partnership with Uber, the Arrival was designed to be the perfect car for ride-hailing. Unlike regular cars that were designed for ownership and just co-opted by Uber drivers, Arrival was built with the specific mindset of being a car meant for ride-hailing. This singular vision helped develop the car’s overall design, as its focus shifted from pure desirability and performance to efficiency, comfort, reliability, and affordability. A taxi cab for the future, Arrival even replaces the iconic yellow cab’s design with a modern, minimalist overhaul, trading in nostalgia for futurism – a concept Uber knows too well.

Designer: ARRIVAL

The Arrival car’s design language stands out for a bunch of reasons – its prime one being its ability to wonderfully blend into the background. Most cars are designed to catch eyes, but the Arrival isn’t about projecting desirability and oozing dynamics. It’s sleek and simple on the eyes, using visual cues that make it camouflage on the road – until you need to spot it. Unlike the yellow taxi that needs to be visible so you can holler and wave at it on the streets, Arrival’s relationship with its rider is much more discreet. Book the car on an app and it arrives to you – it’s a simplicity that allows the Arrival car to look as easy-on-the-eyes as it does. The car uses primitive boxy proportions and straight-ish lines that allow it to wonderfully merge into most blockish neighborhoods, while the use of silver/grey and black still make it look decidedly modern.

The Arrival’s approach to design marks a major departure from how cars are usually designed because its prime focus is the car’s interior, rather than its exterior. A typical vehicle will drive 12,000 kilometers (7500 miles) per year, whereas a cab will cover more than 4x that amount, driving almost 50,000 kilometers each year (31,000 miles). That statistic immediately calls for a focus on two things – the car’s performance, but more importantly, its comfort. Designed to have significantly more legroom, the Arrival Car prioritizes driver comfort, allowing them to drive for hours at an end without feeling the fatigue of navigating roads daily. In fact, its interiors were designed in consultation and collaboration with various Uber drivers, factoring in their inputs and suggestions. The passenger cabin is designed to be much more spacious too, allowing them to travel in the lap of luxury – a user experience that’s arguably most important to Uber.

Following the launch of Uber’s Clean Air Plan in London two years ago, more than £135m has been raised to support drivers with the cost of switching to a fully electric vehicle. Uber’s focus is now to encourage drivers to apply for EV Assistance under the Clean Air Plan.

“The Arrival Car will join Arrival’s previously announced commercial products, the Bus and Van, to provide cities with a multi-modal zero-emission transportation ecosystem that they require in order to meet their sustainability goals over the coming years”, said the Arrival team in a press release. “This integrated transportation ecosystem will create cleaner, more equitable mobility solutions for people living in cities that Arrival believes will have a radical impact on their health and opportunities.”

The post This futuristic Uber cab was designed like a TARDIS – compact on the outside, spacious on the inside first appeared on Yanko Design.

This UberEats delivery scooter comes with an incredibly clever 3-axis gimbal to keep your food intact in transit

Posted on by

The Uber Balance may seem like a clever fusion of a scooter and the stabilizer rig often used with video cameras, but honestly, it’s an extremely natural pairing if you ask me. Gimbals/stabilizers have been used on boats and yachts to prevent them from tipping over on rough waters, and even if you look strictly at the domain of dining and hospitality, bartenders have perfected the ability to perform tricks while flipping bottles, trays, glasses without getting your drink to tip over. The initial spark for the idea’s always been around, but Korea-based designers, Min JU Kim and Hyeonji Roh decided to put the concept together, creating Uber Balance, a fleet of delivery scooters for Uber Eats, equipped with 3-axis stabilizers that ensure your food reaches you in one piece.

There’s a simplicity in the Uber Balance’s design that’s worth admiring. The all-black scooter is retrofitted with a slim, lightweight gimbal that helps to stabilize the food box in the middle. The stabilizer sits where a pillion-rider would, making the scooter a single-seater that’s big enough for the driver, and has ample space at the back to store food parcels in a heat-proof box, keeping them warm through the journey of the trip.

The stabilizer on the back of the scooter neutralizes any bumps in the road or sudden swerves the rider may make to deliver your food to you on time. It swivels on different axes, keeping the food upright while the rider makes their way from the restaurant to your home… and from someone who’s seen his fair share of completely botched cakes/cupcakes, absolutely upturned pizzas, and Indian gravy dishes with spills and leaks, the Uber Balance may sound like a lot of effort, but it serves a pretty elementary purpose – to bring food to you the way the restaurant intended.

At the center of this stabilizer unit is the redesigned food box, which comes with a pivot-and-slide door that doesn’t need to open 180°. Given that the stabilizer’s rings would come in the way of a traditional hinged lid, this current mechanism is perfect for allowing delivery agents to quickly store and retrieve their food parcels, no matter how big they are. The lid obviously locks too, to prevent accidental opening and theft.

While Uber Balance is currently just a conceptual vehicle, what it proposes is pretty unique and game-changing. Food delivery has absolutely taken off in the pandemic, and by redesigning the way the food is delivered, Uber Balance aims at providing customers with a better user experience by giving them food that’s been transported with care… the focus being on the last two words.

Designers: Min JU Kim & Hyeonji Roh

Canoo’s iconic headlights carry forward beautifully in this UberEats Delivery Scooter concept

Posted on by

I personally love it when logos have a bit of versatility. Like when they actually make sense beyond just the rules of branding. Remember Audi’s ‘4 Keys’ commercial? Or this Mercedes Redsun concept? When you make your viewer have an “A-ha!” moment, that’s just peak creativity to me, and that’s exactly why I love this Canoo scooter concept so damn much!

EV startup Canoo debuted just last year announcing a strategic partnership with Hyundai to change how car-ownership works. The strategy aimed at providing the car as a monthly service to owners instead of a one-time full-ownership model. This would allow multiple owners to use a limited number of cars as often as they’d need, and the car would be smart enough to customize itself based on their preferences… but I digress. What was immediately memorable about the Canoo car was its design language, and specifically its headlights, which served as the car company’s branding too. Ali Berzah Can’s conceptual Canoo Scoot uses that very design language to elevate two-wheeler design, as the Canoo logo now becomes the vehicle’s headlights AS WELL AS its handlebars!

Since the Canoo brand is all about redefining ownership, Berzah Can’s conceptual bike keeps that in mind too by creating a scooter designed specifically for delivery. The ‘Scoot’ fleet of vehicles belong to UberEats, and are operated by their delivery executives to rapidly transport food from restaurants to the homes of the people who placed the orders. The Canoo Scoot follows the company’s form language, with geometric lines and gentle fillets to create vehicles that have structure and discipline without looking edgy. Thermoregulated containers on the back let riders store food in them for the length of the delivery cycle, and that Canoo logo on the front is instantly iconic, creating branding that isn’t just a graphic, it’s clever and valuable too!

Designer: Ali Berzah Can

UK Supreme Court rules that Uber should treat drivers as workers

Posted on by
The UK's Supreme Court has today upheld a judgment (.PDF) that says Uber drivers in the UK are entitled to the legal rights and protections afforded to workers. It is the latest in a series of cases where judges have found that, despite Uber’s cl...

Hitting the Books: Why Travis Kalanick got Uber into the self-driving car game

Posted on by
If you thought rocket science was hard, try training a computer to safely change lanes while behind the wheel of a full-size SUV in heavy drivetime traffic. Autonomous vehicle developers have faced myriad similar challenged over the past three decade...