General Motors Tech Center in Warren, Michigan.

...One year before graduating, Steve Hines was one of fourteen design students from around the country to take part in the 8th annual GM Student Intern Summer Program. Steve and one other student were from industrial design programs. The other students were in car-styling programs.

...The assignment for the summer: "Design a vehicle to be used by a minimum of six people for long distance travel. This vehicle should allow for flexible interior use and facilitate moderate passenger activity."

Steve designing a full-size space buck to check access.

Innovations proposed by Steve, most of which are now commonplace:

1. •Vehicle layout, similar to a station wagon or van.
   

2. •Baby crib, padded, behind last seat.
   

3. •Rear seat could be converted into a bed, on the driver's side. Black-out curtains for those windows.
   

4. •Fold out table between second and third-row seats.
   

5. •Map-based navigational system. In this system, the driver would pick up maps on color microfiche from the AAA. The microfiche would be rear projected to a screen on the vehicle dash, and would be slowly advanced and turned in the projector, based on a compass calibration and the rotation and turning of the tires. The microfiche image was to be projected onto cross hairs on the projection screen to show the driver's location. The driver could zoom in on a detail in the map to read streets, or zoom out to get the overall picture for long trips. (GPS was years away from being conceived or available, when this was done.)
   

6. •Molded plastic body panels. To save weight, eliminate the cost of painting, eliminate the possibility of the panel rusting.
   

7. •Removable center console with radio, TV and refrigerated cooler, for picnics or visits to the beach. When the entertainment cooler was returned to the vehicle, it made electrical contact to recharge its own internal battery, and to connect the radio to the vehicle's speakers. Inside the vehicle, the TV faced the rear-seat passengers.
   

8. •Headphone jacks at the back seats for the kids, and for the peace of mind for the driver. Wiring was to be molded into the self-skinned foamed plastic interior upholstery, with the phone jack to be plugged into the plastic wall panel to connect electrically internally.
   

9. •Air conditioning ducts molded into the foamed plastic interior walls, with vents placed as necessary for rear-seat passengers.
   

10. •Front passenger seat could be flipped to the rear to attend to the children in the back, or used forward, conventionally.
    

11. •No left-hand doors except for the driver, to eliminate the possibility that a child or other passenger could get out in traffic, when the driver pulled to the side of the highway.
    

12. •No interior handle for the rear hatch, so that kids could not accidentally fall out.
    

13. •Interior closet for clothes and other items to be kept out of sight.
    

...Ten weeks later, the final presentation of a Long Distance Traveler made in the domed auditorium, visible in the top photo.

    In the final presentation, Steve points out features of the LDT (Long Distance Traveler) to Bill Mitchell, VP, Styling using an interior-space model. The background enclosure houses a cylindrical-perspective drawing to show the driver's sight lines and night-time view of the interior.

    Full-size tape drawings of the vehicle are partially visible. The presentation was attended by the department heads from all the participating schools. Center, foreground: Don Masterton, Head of Product Design from N.C. State. Left: student intern Gerald Weigert, later to design and build the Vector sports car.

S.S. Summer Program

    One of the most fun days of the summer was when another student on the summer program, Nancy Dunker, and I paddled a "boat" made of a 4x8' sheet of foamcore out on the reflecting pond for a picnic on a small island.  The boat folded and sank.  The potato chips and Coke cans floated, and we got soaked.  The security guards were less amused than hundreds of employees at the windows of the Styling building, waving us on.

    No products or concepts shown here are being offered for sale, but are being shown as an examples of innovation, developed by Steve Hines, which clients of HinesLab can now expect on a contract basis.

HinesLab, Inc.

Glendale, California, USA

email: Steve@HinesLab.com