Marcos Nolan

An electronics enclosure designed to attach to the roof of a car as part of a self-driving automotive system.

ABOVE: Promotional photos taken on reveal day BELOW: Photorealistic renderings photoshopped onto existing car imagery for use as marketing materials

Ideation & Development (v1)

Cruise Automation is a San Francisco startup developing a self-driving car package. It was my task to develop an enclosure to contain a radar, two cameras, and associated electronic components. To this end, I sketched, photoshopped, and created 3D models exploring a range of styles.

Preliminary sketches and photomanipulations explored a variety of forms. 3D models were then developed from several of the sketches, as well as from scratch.

ABOVE: The concept eventually chosen to become Version 1 color-matched, rendered, and photoshopped onto an existing image. — Final (v1) Eventually, the team and I selected the concept depicted below for finalization. The resulting 3D-printed, finished and painted enclosure was then featured in the company's initial reveal ads.

Concept Development (v2) After a period of real-world testing, the need for a number of modifications became clear. The first of these was the dampening of wind noise apparent above a certain speed, which was solved mainly by removing the space between the two wings on either side of the enclosure and the roof of the vehicle beneath it. The rest of the modifications were aimed at providing a more refined visual aesthetic, and particularly an appearance that blended better with the test vehicle. Revision 2A sought to fix problems with wind noise at higher speeds by improving aerodynamics, and to explore a visual style that left out the unnecessary radar glass. The width and length were also decreased. Revision 2B saw the further honing of the enclosure's aesthetics.

3D Model