Ford has received input from over 30 000 gamers across the globe, who want to help the auto manufacturer design a virtual racing car, as part of its new collaboration with the gaming community.
The automaker is recruiting gamers to help it design the car exclusively for its e-sports team.
Last year, Ford launched its first e-sports team, Team Fordzilla – P1, to build on its real-world racing experience and compete at the “highest gaming level”.
Ford’s virtual race car will be designed by the Ford of Europe Design Team, together with the wider gaming community.
Through a series of online polls on the key attributes of the vehicle, the gamers’ input will shape its key architecture, and Ford’s design team will then bring it to life.
The development of the Team Fordzilla – P1 project, according to the automaker, will take a few weeks to complete, demonstrating Ford’s real-world, human-centric design thinking in a digital world.
“Coming up with a no-holds-barred race car for the virtual world is when the gloves come off and the design team can really let their imaginations fly. The expertise of gamers is crucial to ensuring this will be the best-looking car on the grid,” says Amko Leenarts, director of design at Ford of Europe.
The Team Fordzilla P1 project will consist of the captains of Ford’s five Fordzilla e-sports teams from France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK.
The challenge is open to car designers, software designers and anyone wishing to design a car. They can share their thoughts, ideas and sketches using the hashtag #TeamFordzilla and/or commenting on the @TeamFordzilla Twitter feed.
The designers will throw open key design decisions to the wider gaming community through a series of Twitter polls that will be posted by @TeamFordzilla.
Each poll will surface a key design attribute – from engine to cockpit shape – that gamers can then decide on.
“We all love racing our dream cars but ultimately these are usually painstaking recreations of vehicles that actually exist in the real world,” says Angelo Bülow, captain of the German Fordzilla team.
“It will be an absolute thrill to get behind the wheel of the #TeamFordzillaP1 for the first time, knowing that not only have we helped to create it but that no one else has ever driven it before.”
Work on the project started this week and can be followed on the @TeamFordzilla Twitter and Instagram channels.
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