Huffington Magazine Issue 2 | Page 58

CHRYSLER DESIGN DYNAMICS very, very cautious about doing anything that might be considered frivolous,” he says. Now, however, designers at GM and elsewhere say technology is catching up with their imaginations, which should make for much broader, more dynamic changes faster. Their goals are ambitious: Create radical new vehicle designs that can adapt to a more crowded, more resource-strained and rapidly-changing world. “I will be really disappointed if we’re not doing some of these things in 2030,” Dean says. “We need to create the solutions that will make society better.” HUFFINGTON 06.24.12 CHISELED HOODS Safety and fuel economy regulations drive a lot of design demands. Designers have to take into consideration airbags, crumple zones (the area of that crunches together in a car accident), roof strength, pedestrian safety concerns and a host of other issues. Combine those issues with fuel economy concerns, and the fact that steel is quite hard to bend, and you can see why it’s challenging to pursue avant garde designs in mass-market cars. The drive for improved fuel economy is also forcing automakers to be more inventive, and could mean we’ll see some Analysts say automakers spend more than $1 billion on the development of new car models, like the Dodge Viper.