Archinect - News

MAD designs a futuristic new campus for Faraday Future

2017-07-18T12:15:00-04:00

Appropriate to its sci-fi ambitions and branding, Faraday Future has enlisted MAD to design a new campus that suggests “extraterrestrial objects capable of de-familiarizing employees and prospective clients with the status quo of the contemporary automotive market.”

Sited on Mare Island in Northern California, the campus will cover approximately 130,000 square meters, of which 20,000 square meters will be buildings. Specifically, the campus features two low, metallic structures as well as a “user experience center” comprising a sculptural reflective tower. From its heights, clients can watch as their car is transported from a warehouse to an exhibition hall via an elevated light rail. Non-client visitors will also be able to visit the experience center.

Image Courtesy of MAD Architects

The site, which used to be a naval base, will have a double-height facility punctured by a series of internal courtyards, intended to ser...

Faraday Future's $1 Billion electric car factory in Nevada stopped in its tracks

2017-07-11T13:25:00-04:00

This is the second and likely final time construction will be halted on the one million square foot plant, which according to The Verge, was going to be Faraday Future's way of competing with fellow electric car manufacturer Tesla.

Faraday Future's "FFZero1 Concept Prototype." Image: Wikipedia

As the article notes:

It was just five months ago that FF was claiming that it was finally restarting construction of its proposed factory in North Las Vegas, almost 11 months after construction was first halted amid the company’s ongoing financial woes. Now it looks like that factory will never be built, as FF is reportedly looking into pursuing less ambitious (re: cheaper) options.

AECOM halts work on Faraday Future's $1-Billion Nevada factory

2016-11-22T15:05:00-05:00

Faraday Future’s future is looking bleaker. After the electric car start-up failed to pay millions of dollars in bills, its contractor Monday halted work on Faraday’s $1-billion North Las Vegas, Nev., car factory. [...] The contractor is Aecom, the Los Angeles-based engineering giant. [...] Faraday failed to pay $21 million due to Aecom in September and owed $25 million in October and $12 million in November, according to Aecom.

Faraday Future previously in the Archinect news:

AECOM to build $1B electric vehicle plant in Vegas

2016-10-19T19:08:00-04:00

Aecom, America’s largest design engineer, will have its skills tested with a contract to build a high-tech factory for Chinese electric vehicle start-up Faraday Future (FF) in Las Vegas. The work will have a construction value of $500m, signed on a guaranteed maximum price basis, but FF has said in the past it wants the factory built in half the normal time. In all, FF is reported to be investing $1bn in its new plant.

What are the ethics of self-driving cars?

2016-05-19T12:45:00-04:00

Philosopher Jason Millar claims to have originated the idea of the ethically challenged self-driving car in a 2014 paper on robotics... In the “The Tunnel Problem,” Millar’s driverless car (let’s call her Porsche again) is fast approaching a narrow tunnel, the entrance of which is blocked by a child who has fallen in the roadway. The car can either kill the kid or hit the wall of the tunnel, killing the driver (who is really just a passenger).

"Millar insists programmers need to build such scenarios into their code. I imagine them writing something like this:

if (kid_in_tunnel > 16) {
    kill kid_in_tunnel;
lp “We are sorry for your loss.”;
}
  else {
    kill ass_in_Porsche;
lp “Serves you right, schmucko.”;
}"

For more on the fast-approaching world of self-driving automobiles, check out these links:

Faraday Future holds groundbreaking ceremony for $1B Nevada factory

2016-04-14T12:27:00-04:00

Electric car company Faraday Future held a groundbreaking ceremony for its $1 billion manufacturing facility outside Las Vegas this afternoon, attended by Nevada governor Brian Sandoval, North Las Vegas mayor John Lee, and a host of other officials. There wasn't any actual "ground" broken, though, really — Faraday still needs to grade the land, which it says it will do "soon."

[...]

"Faraday's VP of Global Manufacturing Dag Reckhorn says that they are "moving extremely quickly for a project of this size" — a 3 million square-foot factory on 900 acres that the company claims will bring 4,300 jobs to the region over a decade — with plans to build in just two years instead of the normal four."

Watch the cached livestream here (video starts at 32:59):

Listen to our recent One-to-One conversation with Richard Kim of Faraday Future:

For more on the future of self-driving automobiles, check out these links:

The "Impossible" Car – Faraday Future's lead designer, Richard Kim, on One-to-One #17

2016-04-04T18:17:00-04:00

Richard Kim is a pretty busy guy – as the head designer at emerging electric vehicle company, Faraday Future, Kim is tasked with creating the company's very first EV for production, destined to compete with Tesla and, as he sees it, the airline industry. No public design is available yet, but Kim hopes to do the "impossible" and ready the car for production in 2017. We found some time in his tight schedule to discuss his role at Faraday Future and what's in store for car ownership and operation in the coming years, as automation and electric battery capabilities open up new paradigms for the humble automobile.

Listen to One-to-One #17 with Richard Kim of Faraday Future:

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