WENG Press Release Single

8/2/2019 WENG Press Release Single

1/8

CONTACT

JOHN [email protected]

+1 415 279 8455

AUGUST 2010 / PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


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


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


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


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.


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


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.


8/8

HI, WE LOVE YOU

Documents

WENG Press Release Single