The company: A circular economy would move the automotive industry into the 21st century by aligning the company's interests with both the customer and environmental concerns. The idea is that the company retains ownership of the vehicles, by selling the service of transportation as a subscription to their clients. Unlike a model where the car company is incentivised by making a cheap car that will last for a minimum lifespan, this circular economy paradigm would incentivize the manufacturer to create the most efficient, longest lasting, and safest vehicle possible. Suddenly, if Riversimple is able to build a safer car they save on insurance. With a more efficient car they save on fuel costs. To this end Riversimple has been developing the Rasa.
The car: The Rasa (from tabula rasa, meaning clean slate) is a super efficient hydrogen fuel cell powered vehicle. It has a fully carbon fiber chassis and skin. It uses a bank of supercapacitors to to harvest energy during braking and provide sporty acceleration.
My roles: I worked alongside other interns and engineers to create a layout for fuel cell and drivetrain components, focusing on repairability, ease of access, and logical wiring disconnects. We created a full scale model and layed out the components based on our design concept. After confirming that we had met or exceeded the goals of the project, we recorded the final layout using CAD software, creating component specifications to be sent to manufacturing along the way.
After proving my capabilities with the layout project, I was handed the job of working to design the vehicle's low voltage wiring loom. Working from drawin`gs passed down from the alpha test car I began to modify writing runs to fit the new vehicle layout as well as incorporating safety features and entertainment features for the new version of the car. During this time I was the sole engineer responsible for this project, reading specifications, conceptualizing wiring designs, laying these designs out in digital software, and beginning to build peg boards and component lists needed to pull test looms. At the time when I left the internship to begin my undergraduate degree the company hired a full time electrical engineer. I spent my final week transferring my work to him.
Between these projects, I also spent odd days creating a digital inventory of the components store room, working with test drivers to collect feedback on the cars, and designing and fabricating stands to accelerate the assembly of vehicles.
