Claims
- 1. A method of manufacturing a vehicle comprising:
designing and manufacturing a vehicle chassis 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, and 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 vehicle chassis is designed to include 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 chassis; and subsequent to said step of manufacturing a vehicle chassis, designing and manufacturing a body configured to conform to said standardized interface system for attachment to said manufactured chassis.
- 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising, after said step of designing and manufacturing a body, attaching the manufactured body to the manufactured chassis.
- 3. The method of claim 2, further comprising, after said attaching step, designing and manufacturing an additional body having a body type different from said attached body and configured to conform to said standardized interface system for selective attachment to said manufactured chassis.
- 4. The method of claim 3, wherein said additional body is selected from the group of body types consisting of sedans, pickup trucks, convertibles, coupes, vans, station wagons, and sport-utility vehicles.
- 5. The method of claim 1, wherein said body is characterized by having at least one electrical connector for communicating steering, braking and propulsion control signals to the chassis, and further characterized by the absence of mechanical communication linkages for communicating steering, braking and propulsion signals to the chassis.
- 6. The method of claim 1, wherein said energy conversion system comprises a fuel cell.
- 7. The method of claim 1, wherein the standardized interface system includes no more than one control signal transmitting electrical connector on the body to provide communication signals to a corresponding electrical connector on the chassis.
- 8. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing wheel motors on at least two of said wheels.
- 9. A method for the rapid production of vehicles, comprising:
manufacturing a plurality of vehicle chassis, each having a body-attachment interface, a suspension system, a controllable energy conversion system, a controllable steering system, and a controllable braking system; wherein the body-attachment interface includes body connection components engageable with complementary connection components on a vehicle body, including at least one body-retention coupling and at least one control signal receiving electrical connector; each of the energy conversion system, the steering system, and the braking system operably connected to at least one control signal receiving electrical connector; and each of the body-connection components on each of the vehicle chassis having the same predetermined spatial relationship relative to one another on the body attachment interface; manufacturing a plurality of first vehicle bodies, the vehicle bodies each having a chassis-attachment interface juxtaposable with the body attachment interface of any of said chassis and comprising chassis-connection components complementary to the body-connection components, including at least one chassis-retention coupling and at least one control signal transmitting electrical connector, the chassis-connection components of each chassis attachment interface having a spatial relationship relative to one another on the chassis attachment interface that is compatible with the predetermined spatial relationship of the body-connection components on the vehicle chassis; in response to a perceived market demand, subsequently manufacturing a plurality of second vehicle bodies differing in style, function, or configuration from the first vehicle bodies previously manufactured, the second bodies having a chassis-attachment interface comprising chassis connection components complementary to the body-connection components, including a chassis retention coupling and a control signal transmitting electrical connector, the chassis-connection components of the second vehicle bodies having a spatial relationship relative to one another that is the same as the spatial relationship of the body-connection components of the first vehicle bodies; and in response to a perceived market demand, manufacturing a vehicle with one of said first or second vehicle bodies on one of said vehicle chassis.
- 10. A method of designing and manufacturing vehicles comprising:
designing and manufacturing a plurality of vehicle chassis conforming to a predefined 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 complementary predetermined spatial positions relative to each other in a corresponding chassis-attachment interface on any body to be attached to the chassis; and concurrently with said designing and manufacturing a plurality of vehicle chassis, designing and manufacturing a plurality of vehicle bodies corresponding to said predefined vehicle body-chassis interface system, such that said chassis and bodies are designed and manufactured in parallel; said vehicle chassis and vehicle bodies being designed and manufactured independently of each other.
- 11. The method of claim 10, wherein said vehicle bodies comprise different types of bodies selected from the group consisting of sedans, pickup trucks, convertibles, coupes, vans, station wagons, sport-utility vehicles, and other types of transports.
- 12. The method of claim 11, wherein said vehicle bodies comprise at least three body styles selected from said group conforming to said body-chassis interface system so that one of said chassis is attachable to each of said at least two styles of bodies.
- 13. The method of claim 10, wherein said chassis are designed and manufactured to include 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, and controllable by wire; a by-wire braking system mounted to the frame and operably connected to at least one wheel; a by-wire steering system mounted to the frame and operably connected to at least one wheel; and a computer operatively connected to the energy conversion system, braking system, and steering system.
- 14. The method of claim 13, wherein said energy conversion system comprises a fuel cell.
- 15. The method of claim 10, further comprising attaching one of said bodies to one of said chassis and, thereafter, designing and manufacturing different bodies having different body types than said one of the bodies and configured to conform to said predefined body-chassis interface system for attachment to said manufactured chassis.
- 16. The method of claim 10, wherein said bodies are manufactured to include at least one electrical communication linkage (electrical connector) for communicating steering, braking and propulsion control signals to a chassis, and characterized by the absence of mechanical communication linkages for communicating steering, braking and propulsion signals to a chassis.
- 17. The method of claim 10, wherein said predefined vehicle body-chassis interface system includes no more than one control signal transmitting electrical connector on said bodies to provide communication signals to a corresponding electrical connector on one of said chassis.
- 18. A method of manufacturing a vehicle comprising;
designing and manufacturing a vehicle chassis including a structural frame; a suspension system mounted to the structural frame; at least three wheels rotatably mounted to the suspension system; a fuel cell energy conversion system mounted to the structural frame, operably connected to at least one wheel, and controllable by wire; a by-wire braking system mounted to the structural frame and operably connected to at least one wheel; a by-wire steering system operably connected to at least one wheel and controllable by wire; and a computer operatively connected to the fuel cell energy conversion system, braking system and steering system, wherein said vehicle chassis is designed to include 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 chassis; subsequent to said step of manufacturing a vehicle chassis, designing and manufacturing a body configured to conform to said standardized interface system for attachment to said manufactured chassis; attaching said manufactured body to said manufactured chassis; and after said attaching step, designing and manufacturing an additional body having a body type different from said attached body and configured to conform to said standardized interface system for selective attachment to said manufactured chassis.
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Applications Nos. 60/314,501 and 60/337,994, filed Aug. 23, 2001 and Dec. 7, 2001, both of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties.
Provisional Applications (2)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
|
60314501 |
Aug 2001 |
US |
|
60337994 |
Dec 2001 |
US |