Art, Innovation and Car Design Collide in the Life of Michael Santoro by Ed Attanasio
I think everyone can agree a well-designed car is a piece of art, like a Donatello or a Rodin. While it’s true automobiles are created to transport people and things, that doesn’t devalue their design or aesthetic appeal, which is why some call them “sculpture in motion.” A vehicle starts out as a series of illustrations that eventually become a clay sculpture. Throughout the process, a wide variety of sometimes conflicting priorities must be considered when creating a car design. These include the needs of the driver and passengers, the ability for the design to be manufactured and the hopes and dreams of the designer who created it. Michael Santoro of San Diego, CA, is a former automotive designer who now teaches car design. He founded and oversees a company making Apple accessories, which has met with huge success, and is also a highly-respected artist known
for paintings of his favorite Formula it back to its iconic roots while pushOne drivers, including Niki Lauda ing it forward into the new century. and Ayrton Senna. Landing a job as a car designer A native of New York City, San- with Chrysler at 21 was unheard of. toro graduated from the world-re- As the new kid on the team, Santoro nowned High School of Art was able to bring a young & Design, where he was a and fresh perspective to evmember of the first-ever inerything he worked on for dustrial design high school the carmaker. program in the country. “I knew that this was After graduating from a great opportunity and a Pratt Institute with a bachedream job,” he said. “You lor’s degree in industrial de- Michael Santoro have a better chance of sign, Santoro was accepted of San Diego, CA, is playing in the NFL than you as the first-ever post-gradu- a former automo- do becoming a professional tive designer and ate design intern at Chrysler car designer in the United inventor who now Corporation where, upon teaches car design States, so I was excited to completion, he received an get a chance.” and oversees his company MacCase, offer to join the staff. Santoro was able to see Santoro spent six years the creators of the a car design team in action Apple-specific case as an automotive designer and learned as much as he market at Chrysler, where he crecould. ated the groundbreaking cab-for- “Within a given studio, each ward exterior design of the 1995 designer creates his or her own proCar of the Year, the first-generation posal. You’re competing with your Chrysler Cirrus and its sister vehi- coworkers for the opportunity for cle, the Dodge Stratus. Before leav- your design to go into production.” ing Chrysler, Santoro penned the Most production programs are 1996-2006 Jeep Wrangler, bringing on four-year cycles. Once the vehi-
Tesla Vision Will Capture Hazards, Turn Signals, Hand Gestures, More, Says Musk by Maria Merano, Teslarati
In a recent set of posts on Twitter over the July 10-11 weekend, Tesla CEO Elon Musk shared some capabilities that Tesla Vision could receive in the near future. These include the ability to detect turn signals, hazards, police and ambulance lights and even hand gestures. Musk’s update initially came as a response to a video from FSD Beta tester Eli Burton, who spent the weekend testing the capabilities of FSD Beta V9. In one of his tests, the Model S Performance owner noticed Tesla Vision now captures and renders the tail lights of other vehicles as they waited in an intersection. Musk commented on the post with his update, and in a later response, said FSD Beta should also react and respond to ambulance and police vehicles when their lights are on. Musk further said FSD Beta would later gain the ability to “listen” for sirens and alarms, which
should help Teslas handle and react appropriately to emergency vehicles like ambulances and fire trucks, as well as police cars. Musk’s mention of FSD Beta’s “listening” capability is interesting, especially since Teslas today seem to be only equipped with in-cabin microphones. Considering a car’s cabin would likely be saturated with sounds from media being played on the vehicle, developing an accurate system to detect sirens and alarms may be a very challenging endavor. Even without the ability to “listen” for alarms and sirens, however, the upcoming improvements for Tesla Vision outlined by Musk would most certainly make Autopilot and the Full Self-Driving suite safer and more robust. Every update to Tesla Vision is a step toward the company’s long-term goal of achieving autonomous driving, after all, and the ability to detect and interpret lights and hand gestures plays a key role in reaching that target.
42 AUGUST 2021 AUTOBODY NEWS / autobodynews.com
cle is in production, they will normally do a facelift every two years, at which point they will do things like tweaking the front and rear fascia or adding new wheel options. For a car’s exterior, designers work with industrial sculptors to create full size models in clay over a wood and foam structure. Once the model is complete, it’s presented to upper management, who choose from the various proposals presented. In this case, it was Chrysler CEO Lee Iacocca and Vice Chairman Bob Lutz, among others. For the Cirrus/Stratus program, eight full-size clay models were done. The board liked Santoro’s design for the Cirrus and it went into production, eventually chosen as the 1995 Car of the Year. Did Santoro get a bonus when he and his team received the highly prestigious award? “No, but I got to see my design made real and put into the world. That’s a happiness no one can ever take away.”
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