Italdesign’s Climb-E concept features 3DFashion technology

Storied Italian automotive design studio Italdesign celebrated its 55th anniversary at CES 2023 in Las Vegas with Climb- E, an autonomous transportation concept that can guarantee a seamless private travel experience. Climb-E embraces evolution in the concept of local sustainable urban mobility into continuous sustainable urban mobility. While it is revolutionary in many ways, it is worth noting the technology used to add graphics onto the rear horizontal backrest surfaces that are covered in Alcantara: Created by Stratasys, customization is done through the J850 TechStyle 3D printer (3DFashion technology), printing directly onto the fabric using plastics compatible with approved standards.

The Climb-E project was created from the collaboration between Italdesign, the Schindler group, a leader in the elevator, escalator and moving walkways sector, and the Politecnico di Torino – Department of Architecture and Design, and Interateneo Department of Land Science, Design and Policy. This project also confirms Italdesign’s role as a “technology enabler and hub,” capable of uniting different industrial sectors to promote and develop innovation.

Claudia Gilardi, the CMF Designer at Italdesign, explained why they chose Stratasys direct-to textile 3D printing technology for the Climb-E concept car, by pointing out that with Stratasys 3DFashion technology, their team was able to create exclusive designs with color and tactile textures which cannot be achieved with any other technology.

When configured for home public services, the interior’s minimalist design allows for completely free configuration and installation of equipment and instruments depending on the functions. The wide choice of materials makes it easier to clean and sanitize the interiors, which becomes a priority for this use, compared with the purely architectural and aesthetic aspects of versions for private use.

In fact, alongside the intended privately-owned use, Climb-E can guarantee different services straight to people’s doors, thanks to its capacity to integrate into next- gen and future civil and residential building structures. The next step will be a study to integrate Climb-E into current and historical architectural heritage.

For the first time ever, Italdesign, Schindler, and Politecnico di Torino attended CES 2023 in Las Vegas with an innovative autonomous driving concept that can guarantee a seamless private travel experience and a series of services straight to people’s doors, thanks to its complete capacity to integrate into next- gen and future civil and residential building structures. Further development of the project will lead to adapting the concept to historical buildings and architectural heritage, too.

The philosophy behind the Climb-E concept goes back to the experience of seamless transport already introduced in 2017 with the Pop.Up project and in 2018 with the Pop.Up Next evolution. This concept is joined by the innovative idea of offering various services straight to users’ doors.

Climb-E offers the possibility of traveling by starting right from your door or place of work, staying in your private environment without ever having to change vehicle, while also guaranteeing maximum comfort and completely breaking down any possible architectural barriers, an increasingly topical and sensitive issue in the development of urban areas.

It is a modular means of transport formed of a capsule, designed for private use, which can transport in standard configuration up to four people and can be coupled, when moving, with a fully electric platform (hereinafter called the skid), which is not owned but rather shared and features autonomous driving. The truly unique added value of this concept is the capsule’s capacity to find its natural place as an integral part of various residential or working locations, becoming an additional room and/or extension.

Alongside private use of the Climb-E concept, the modular nature of the project allows for many different configurations that can offer a functional and exclusive private/public service. In fact, the capsule’s interior configurations allow for many public services to be offered to private users right at their homes. The range of home services is endless: basic medical assistance services, telemedicine medical analysis or dental care, catering and show cooking services for private events, fully equipped home massages, home sales of various products, veterinary and pet grooming services, and much more.

The entire system is managed through a special app that lets owners book their trip either around or out of town or book a specific service. Scheduling a journey involves collection of the capsule right from your apartment, condominium, or office thanks to the system of hoists developed by Schindler and the subsequent transfer to street level to be coupled with the skid that is always pre-booked through the app. Once you have reached your destination, the capsule is released from the skid to be coupled either with another hoist for positioning up to the right floor of the intended building (residential/office) or with another carrier for longer journeys, such as the hyperloop.

Once their service cycle is finished, skids can fulfill bookings from other users, or they can return autonomously to their charging and parking stations, so they are available for future calls. Integration with architecture and the city – The vision of the Politecnico di Torino Faculty of Architecture and Design and Inter-University Department of Regional & Urban Studies and Planning

Climb-E, in its dual function of transport and home or office extension, creates a new connection between mobility and architecture: a hybrid between a means of transport and a home, high-performance and high-tech but also welcoming and inviting.

Italdesign and Schindler are collaborating in this co-innovation project to design new mobility possibilities combined with urban infrastructure. The concept is based on a modular system that includes autonomous skids, an elevator frame, and personal capsules. This modular system of capsules that can autonomously move vertically but also horizontally creates new opportunities for future cities. Seamless autonomous travel from door to door offers comfort in a completely new dimension. Personalization of the capsule offers mobility on a new level, where car space, elevator space, and flat space become one. With this project we are jointly rethinking building and façade design, as well as solving everyday city problems like traffic jams or limited parking slots by means of connectivity.

Thanks to its autonomous driving and electric power, Climb-E can travel in both directions. The exterior design of the capsule stands out with the complete symmetry of its form, expressing the dual nature of the capsule’s mobility. Climb- E has completely abandoned the classic concept of vehicle style with a driver that requires a front and a rear.

The design of the sides, which develops upwards, focuses on maximum accessibility to guarantee that the interior space is completely livable and usable. The sides feature clear separation between the lower body, made from composite material, and the upper one, formed by a large window that ensures the passenger compartment is nice and bright while also guaranteeing maximum privacy thanks to the option of completely blocking out the glass.

Both sides of the capsule feature two pairs of pivot doors that can integrate into the docking station in the host building, providing excellent access inside the capsule even for those who use wheelchairs or have mobility challenges.

The exterior part of the doors, on the surface that separates the upper glass area from the bottom part, features proximity and automatic recognition sensors for the registered users as well as four small LED screens that let you customize welcome on-board messages or can display functional messages.

The roof features soft lines with large, continuous screen-printing that conveys energy and speed, thanks to a series of parallel lines that create continuous strips, which can be found with different functions and styles, all over the vehicle, both inside and outside.

The top part of the roof features a four-point attachment system that, when coupled with the lifting system designed by Schindler, lets you move the capsule vertically from various levels on host buildings down to street level for coupling with the skid.

The exterior color is metallic light blue with a combination of gloss and matte paints to create a “tone-on-tone” effect that enhances the feature lines and exterior surfaces of the bodywork.

The four-point latching system with the skid for on-road travel is housed in the underbody of the capsule. This system is like the one used on the roof for fastening to the elevator and is the evolution of the system developed with the Pop.Up project in 2017.

This Climb-E latching system solution is taken from Italian Patent Application N. 102018000010623 (Applicant: Italdesign) in 2018. Moreover, a new Patent Application has been just filed (Applicant: Italdesign), focusing on projecting system of ground-module self-driving capsule. This new Patent Application (projecting system of ground-module self-driving capsule) and Design Patent Exterior and Interior are applicable on vehicles in general, especially for autonomous driving.