Support for Crowdsourcing Vehicle Design Competitions
The US transportation sector represents the single largest demand for petroleum in the world. In 2011, 94% of U.S. transportation energy came from petroleum, and light duty vehicles (i.e. passenger vehicles) rank as the largest single consumer, accounting for 68% of all petroleum used for transportation. Currently, more than one billion metric tons of CO2 are emitted per year from passenger vehicles,1 accounting for more than 10% of the total US greenhouse gas emission. Wide adoption of fuel-efficient vehicles, including those at reduced weights, can help ARPA-E to fulfill its mission in reducing energy imports, reducing emissions, and improving energy efficiency. It is estimated that for every 10% of vehicle weight reduction, a 6-8% of fuel consumption decrease is possible . To address these challenges, ARPA-E is considering a prize based design competition 1) to produce conceptual designs of vehicles and 2) to propose cost effective pathways for the production and the assembly of future lightweight vehicles, especially those that require both low capital and operational costs for low volume manufacturing. Goals of the competition would include identifying optimal vehicle design possibilities and critical candidate technologies for future research investments by ARPA-E and other government agencies, and by industry and academia. Through this RFI ARPA-E seeks to identify organizations capable of working with ARPA-E to leverage a crowdsourcing community for a vehicle design challenge. It is expected that capable organizations will have the requisite infrastructure and resources needed to collaborate with ARPA-E in carrying out such community administration activities as: technical brief development to the community, correspondence from the community, tracking projects within the community, judging submissions, IP management, and providing expert analysis of the challenge's competitive developments. It is also expected that capable organizations will have demonstrated abilities in advertising and disseminating challenges of this nature and executing with ARPA-E under tight time constraints. It is anticipated that capable organizations will be able to leverage community expertise for an automotive design challenge and a final analysis that aids in the identification of innovative trends. It is highly des irable that the organization will possess in-depth technological knowledge of the competition?s subject matter.
Office: Headquarters
ARPA-E-RFI-Challenge@hq.doe.gov
