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The vehicle designed by Edgar Sarmiento, won the Urban Mobility Challenge: Berlin 2030.

A US company known as Local Motors manufactured the minibus.

The vehicle has no emissions.

The prototype was showcased in a special ceremony in the US.

The vehicle will tour the streets of National Harbor, Maryland.

Edgar Sarmiento on the car prototype he designed.

Launching of the minibus prototype was held last June at the facilities of a US company known as Local Motors, which last year summoned an international contest called Urban Mobility Challenge: Berlin 2030, which was won by Sarmiento. 

Manufacturing Olli will take place in microfactories of Local Motors Corporation which already has orders from Miami-Dade County and Las Vegas, as well as from the Government of Denmark said Local Motors Public Relations Director, Jacqueline Keidel. 

This minibus won the contest for its zero emission condition and the versatility to connect to multimodal transportation systems. Furthermore it has several new features such as the electric system, the self-motion system and large front and back panoramic windshields. Additionally it has a futuristic structure including applications which allows users to plan and modify their route and also suggests the most adequate itinerary and warns on traffic jams or accidents. 

The vehicle was initially called Berlino, honoring the city where it was supposedly going to run. After several prototype versions the minibus was named Edgar to honor the designer and according to the passenger capability they added a number; for instance Edgar 08 or Edgar 10. However Local Motors Marketing Department decided to change its name to Olli 

“It represents the speed and cutting technology with which Local Motors can bring vehicles to market and showcases what co-creation, micro-manufacturing and direct digital manufacturing (DDM) are capable of. The most important feature is our ability to continually improve and customize the vehicle through 3-D printing and other DDM strategies. This allows for quick innovations and updates of the vehicle to suit customer needs and advancements in technology. It is a visually stunning design that allows for continued innovation and customization- whether it carries people or cargo,” said Keidel. 

Winning design 

Local Motors is headquartered in Phoenix (Arizona) and has locations in National Harbor, Maryland; Las Vegas, Nevada; Knoxville, Tennessee; and Berlin, Germany. They plan to market the vehicle in cities, planned communities, college and business campuses, theme parks, large malls- anywhere the need for on-demand transportation exists. 

The vehicle in an intelligent automatized driving vehicle, it is equipped with sensors and is similar in size to a family car. It has two equal sides which enable it to change directions and two doors on each side. The electrical system is coupled with solar panels on the roof of the vehicle. It also has bicycle supports, which was one of the challenges of the contest. 

3-D Designs 

The secret on how to reach the winning design is not clear to the designer because improving a model like Olli depends on many factors. “For me, I think on the strategic plan according to the proposed plan: goals, requirements and time. I didn’t have much time to design because the contest required a complete presentation of the solution. Therefore I focused on modeling the product and the graphic communication of the idea,” said Sarmiento. 

“The experience I had acquired designing mobility models in college helped me in the project. For instance for my thesis project I had researched the topic, so really there were many elements of the initial stage which were taken from my previous experience. I had an interesting idea of creating a public transportation intelligent system and based on this I sketched some plans and sized the vehicle before modeling it in 3-D. 

According to the designer he did not have a precise inspiring idea: “Inspiration is sometimes alien to the designer. Folks see us as people that only try to make nice things, but no. We have a basic knowledge on many topics which we materialize by means of graphic communication and 3-D imagery, both physical and digital,” he adds. 

“When you travel abroad, you learn that everybody is essentially the same. We are not better or worse, we have great potential and creativity, but we are still a long ways from uniting, of interrelating values and education to overcome different obstacles,” said Sarmiento, whose immediate plans are to continue studying and doing things with patience, persistence and passion.