View
231
Download
0
Category
Preview:
Citation preview
8/2/2019 WENG Press Release Single
1/8
CONTACT
JOHN STANFIELDJOHN@WENGMOTORS.COM
+1 415 279 8455
AUGUST 2010 / PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
8/2/2019 WENG Press Release Single
2/8
HERES A LITTLE BIT OF OUR STORY
You wouldnt blow-dry your hair with a
jet engine, says co-founder John Staneld,
reecting on the irony of driving automobiles
to accomplish short trips. John and four
classmates from Stanford Universitys
graduate Design Program teamed up in
the last ten weeks of graduate school to
see if they could imagine and build a more
appropriate solution to our short-distance
mobility needs. The intent of this teams work
was to create a concept vehicle that would
replace the 4,000-pound, 200-horsepower
car for common short trips. In those ten
hectic weeks, amidst other coursework and
the varied concerns of students nearing the
end of the school year, the team of ve rolled
out an electric vehicle that they believe will
begin a long overdue dialogue regarding our
choices in transportation. We like cars,
assures teammate David Goligorsky but
they are designed to be efcient for trips most
people rarely take. The team bolstered their
research with eld studies using methods
borrowed from Ethnography and Sociology.
On paper, the team appears to be a motley
crew of academic backgrounds and loosely
8/2/2019 WENG Press Release Single
3/8
afliated career pursuits. Staneld earned an
undergraduate degree in Physics and went
on to join a team of reghters jumping from
helicopters to battle forest blazes. He has also
worked Search & Rescue in Yosemite National
Park and run two businesses- a window-
cleaning operation in San Francisco and a
Mercedes biodiesel conversion company in
Los Angeles. Karen Shakespear also studied
Physics and spent two post-graduate years
as a professional baker in Massachusetts.
Brian Ng holds undergraduate degrees
in both Electrical Engineering and Fine
Art, working for the better part of a decade
at Volkswagens Electronics Research
Laboratory developing concept vehicles and
interactions. Goligorsky studied Aerospace
Engineering and worked for a few years on
Department of Defense contracts including
a hypersonic projectile for electromagnetic
8/2/2019 WENG Press Release Single
4/8
railguns. Andrew Murphy is an Electrical
Engineer with several years of experience
working on electromechanical systems and
running his own design consulting rm called
Monkey Wrench Design. This utterly disparate
amalgamation of backgrounds is a trademark
of the Stanford program in Design and turned
out to be a perfectly complimentary pairing of
skill-sets that allowed for one team member
to jump in where anothers abilities began to
tail off.
At the beginning of June, just hours before
their nal presentation to faculty advisors,
the WENG took its maiden voyage, pushing
off from Building 610, or The Loft to those in
the know. The drivetrain includes a pair of
1.2kW in-hub DC brushless motors propelled
by 60V from a bundle of LiFePO4 (lithium
iron phosphate) battery cells. Two motor
controllers manage the dialogue between
the twist-grip throttle, the battery pack, and
the hub motors. Customized motor controller
software dictates a torque value to the
individual motors, eliminating the need for a
mechanical differential and freeing the vehicle
from the clutter of gears and axles. Each
8/2/2019 WENG Press Release Single
5/8
rear wheel is mounted on a swing-arm
suspension borrowed from the scooter
industry. These are complemented by a
leaf spring suspension at the front wheels,
offering a fantastically smooth ride.
One of the most interesting technical
features of the WENG is its unique
steer-by-wire system. Theres an egg-
shaped aluminum enclosure mounted
to the handlebars housing a thumb
joystick harvested from a PS3 video
game controller. It communicates with
a gifted smart motor from a company in
Sunnyvale, CA called Animatics. This
motor drives a custom gearbox designed
and manufactured by Mr. Murphy, who
bought his own 3-axis CNC mill at a used
equipment auction. The gearbox transfers
rotary motion from the high-speed motor
to the linear action of a typical rack-and-
pinion steering mechanism, converting
that thumb input to turning authority. The
steering feels strange at rst, but gets
to be intuitive within a few blocks, says
Brian Ng, whose contributions include the
design sketches of the prototype vehicle.
8/2/2019 WENG Press Release Single
6/8
Its like Mario Karts in real life!
The WENG was built nearly entirely by hand
with rare exceptions. Shakespears talent
at the bakery translated well to the machine
shop where she handled a lions share of
the build and all the detailed handiwork.
The group MIG- and TIG-welded the steel
chassis, crafted the gorgeous wooden deck,
bent steel tube, formed sheet metal, and
even upholstered the scooter-style seats by
hand (with grips to match.) The dashboard
is a spartan but effective laser-cut panel with
three switches including an On/Off, Forward/
Reverse, and a toggle for the lathe-turned
and hand-wired LED headlights.
All said, the WENG rides like a magic
carpet and looks like a lunar rover for
exploring ones local environs. This vehicle
is a concept prototype, however, and requires
some changes before it can see production.
After graduation and the barrage of press
coverage that followed the release of the
WENG, the team was offered grant funding
from Lightspeed Venture Partners. This
8/2/2019 WENG Press Release Single
7/8
annual no-strings-attached summer grant
gives select entrepreneurs the opportunity
to incubate a business idea under the
wing of seasoned venture capitalists and
vetted serial-entrepreneurs. For this,
team WENG welcomed Graeme Waitzkin,
a recent alum from Stanfords Graduate
School of Business, to scope the business
opportunity while the original crew
continued to iterate and rene the Design
and Engineering. The team is just starting
to look for funding from angel investors,
so keep your eyes peeled for when these
friendly electric vehicles take to the street.
Then again, theyll be hard to overlook.
8/2/2019 WENG Press Release Single
8/8
HI, WE LOVE YOU
Recommended