Event will show off concept vehicle

A concept vehicle developed by Clemson students goes on display next week in Greenville.  Automotive enthusiasts, engineering junkies and others interested are invited to see the Toyota uBox.  A party hosted by Toyota of Greenville is planned Monday from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. at 2700 Laurens Road.  The party is free to the public and will feature food and live music. Faculty, students and staff from the Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research (CU-ICAR) will be there to answer questions and discuss the project. The Toyota uBox is the sixth-generation Deep Orange project, a program in Clemson’s graduate automotive engineering department. After being unveiled in April in Detroit, the concept vehicle is back in its home state. Deep Orange 6 is an urban utility concept vehicle for young car buyers of Generation Z. The car was created in collaboration with graduate automotive engineering students at Clemson, transportation design students at ArtCenter College of Design and Toyota. The program challenges students to apply what they learn from faculty and industry experts in designs, vehicle innovations and engineering processes. The goal is to train future engineers to be innovators capable of designing vehicles that balance environmental consciousness, social adaptability and economic feasibility.“The collaboration with Toyota was open and extremely fruitful,” said Paul Venhovens, BMW Endowed Chair for Automotive Systems Integration at CU-ICAR. “The Toyota management team asked all the right questions at the right time. They constantly challenged the students with justifying their design and engineering decisions based on the Toyota brand essence, real-world customers and what the students believed the future would embrace. This experience can simply not be gained from a text book.”