Opinion AI design discussion

[Rolf]

If one is able to relatively precisely articulate what one wants, it IS amazingly "easy":

Case-in-point not a Mercedes-Benz, but...

Could this be seriously construed as being "ugly" ? Could this be considered impossible to replicate as a real automobile in mass production volumes ? Could this be perceived that it would appeal to far more consumers than the current ID 7 provided that underpinning technology is compelling ? Could this be a resource of healthy revenues originating from a very favorable cost/return structure ? Would a vast number of customers care that this vehicles exterior design is a product of prompt generated AI ?

With car design there are constraints and international standards that the design has to comply with, such as the height of lights, bumpers, bonnet etc. for safety reasons, which the AI can probably not incorporate and will have to be checked by a real car designer that has experience with the international car design and safety requirements.

I am still old school and prefer designs starting from hand sketches and then going to a basic CAD design and then later a fully detailed design rendering as this is when designers are using their own imagination. AI can probably use previous designs and mix them with new designs but may lack some originality compared to what comes out of the imagination of a full on car design studio.

Paul Bracq designs

 

[klier]

How could you possibly know whether this is new to me ? Not saying that it is. Not saying that it isn't.

Because you literally have said this not that long ago. I can look it up if you question this.


Just stop the AI slop. It’s unwanted.

 

[kiki voinea]

A bit harsh maybe. But the major point is: AI can be a very useful ways to a means. Not only a matter of presenting plausible, product viable design exercises, but also an instrument that can be viable in terms of economics and timeliness in the presentation of new products.

But yes, M-B designs have been leaving me a bit disappointed regarding all exercises following the W/S214 E-Class and C236 CLE.

I'm just gonna attach this printscreen from that clip.

Every design /sketch that has some true intel in it , will at least look functional

So I may ask: How do you open that trunk?

 

[Design FIRST]

Ah sure, you know what. Lets just completely take the art out of the equation.
Bin all the design departments and just have someone throwing prompts into a diffusion model, so we can have a bunch of generic samey slop.

Much cheaper than having real people think, conceptualise, draw and whatnot. Just skip the middle man. Cause that's what this is all about right? Saving time and money, without any concern for the environment or the people who spend years perfecting their skills.

Problem with diffusion models is a) they consume gargantuan amounts of power per image generated. And make no mistake, you'll need to generate many images. And b) they can only create something from what already exists. That Vision Iconic is not something an AI could have dreamt up. But it sure can make overly smooth melty looking "concepts" from the Vision Iconic design.

I think I know where your coming from here-and I find your argument legitimate.

Maybe we are both coming from different schools of thought regarding automobiles in general. You, for example, appear far more passionate and emotionally, perhaps professionally, invested. I, on the other hand, find myself viewing modern automobiles as being increasingly device-like. Products, in which form follows function with little room for visual extravagances. Not that they cannot look "sharp or "smart", of course. Maybe that is why I have an affinity for brands like Polestar, Volvo, some of the most recent designs coming from Volkswagen's collaborations with Chinese partners, the BMW NKL vehicles, etc. My "passion for the craft" is becoming increasingly addressed by classic automobiles. 1970s and eras previous to that.

Discourse is good.

 

[Design FIRST]

Because you literally have said this not that long ago. I can look it up if you question this.

Yeah, I remember that vaguely. Perhaps I should have said that my access to Gemini AI is relatively new.
Anyhow, I'll make the admission that I am nor ever have been in any way professionally involved in automotive (or any other form of) design. That's probably quite obvious. I'm simply keenly interested in it and hence an eternal student. I make no claim to being particularly knowledgable. Simply inquisitive.

Just stop the AI slop. It’s unwanted.

Well...by YOU as well as several others here as well. But I will rely EXCLUSIVELY on actual moderators and GCF staff to request that I cease posting certain things on these forums. They drop me that message, and I will oblige without argument. YOU however, have absolutely NO authority to do so.

 

[Design FIRST]

I'm just gonna attach this printscreen from that clip.

Every design /sketch that has some true intel in it , will at least look functional

So I may ask: How do you open that trunk?

You're right. Awkward. The section of the lighting units not incorporated into the sheetmetal of the haunchés and bumper/apron segment lifting with the sloping decklid ???? I don't even know whether that would mechanically work without some aventurous hinge mechanism.

 

[Serpens]

I agree the constant AI crap infiltrating these threads is making the forum less enjoyable.

 

[Design FIRST]

I agree the constant AI crap infiltrating these threads is making the forum less enjoyable.

I've just created a separate dedicated thread in the Car Topics section, also requesting to the moderators that my Volkswagen AI post be transferred there as well.

 

[klier]

I'm simply keenly interested in it and hence an eternal student. I make no claim to being particularly knowledgable. Simply inquisitive.

Eternal student of fictitious AI renders? Good luck with that I suppose, because it will never end just like an Instagram reel. It's only a 20 second promt away after all.

Well...by YOU as well as several others here as well. But I will rely EXCLUSIVELY on actual moderators and GCF staff to request that I cease posting certain things on these forums. They drop me that message, and I will oblige without argument. YOU however, have absolutely NO authority to do so.

Keep spamming AI and it will happen soon enough. Now relax please.

 

[Design FIRST]

Eternal student of fictitious AI renders? Good luck with that I suppose, because it will literally never end just like an Instagram reel. It's only a 20 second promt away after all.



Keep spamming AI and it will happen soon enough. Now relax please.

Calmer than you

 

[Design FIRST]

Eternal student of fictitious AI renders? Good luck with that I suppose, because it will never end just like an Instagram reel. It's only a 20 second promt away after all.

It's part of the curriculum, man.

 

[Rolf]

It's part of the curriculum, man.

Now is the time to learn AI applications, so why not enjoy and have fun creating your own pics of cars.

My restomod of a W116 S-class. Not perfect and some would say tacky but it looks good in my opinion.

 

[Design FIRST]

Now is the time to learn AI applications, so why not enjoy and have fun creating your own pics of cars.

My restomod of a W116 S-class. Not perfect and some would say tacky but it looks good in my opinion.

Unfortunately, I cannot sketch worth shit. I believe the disorder is called "constructional apraxia". THE reason why I was unable to realize my adolescent dreams of becoming an automotive designer.

 

[Design FIRST]

Unfortunately, I cannot sketch worth shit. I believe the disorder is called "constructional apraxia". THE reason why I was unable to realize my adolescent dreams of becoming an automotive designer.

Ha...I somehow felt compelled to look this up. As I'm pretty good at putting things together quickly without having to refer to assembly manuals and such (furniture, devices, appliances, home renovation etc.), it is probably something else. My inabiity is not being able to sketch two or three dimensionally. Some sort of spacial perception deficit involving brain-to-drawing hand.

 

[Sunny]

Problem with diffusion models is a) they consume gargantuan amounts of power per image generated. And make no mistake, you'll need to generate many images.

There are many good reasons to have human designers over an AI model, but energy efficiency is not one of them.

 

[Design FIRST]

There are many good reasons to have human designers.

Perhaps the ability to conceptualize and articulate it clearly, I suppose.

 

[Sunny]

Perhaps the ability to conceptualize and articulate it clearly, I suppose.

Curiosity, creativity, critical thinking...

What gen AI really enables is now someone who is creative and imaginative in a field, even if they are not skilled in that field - be it drawing, writing, singing, coding - can translate their imagination into reality.
.
You don't have to be an artist to make a painting of a scenery you picture in your head. You don't have to be a singer to make tune that is playing in your head. You don't have to be a coder to make software you got the idea for. You don't have to be a movie producer with a studio behind you to make a movie you imagined.

It really democratizes the creative process.

The bad side is, now even mediocre/bad ideas can now become reality. So now everyone and their gold fish is going to design a new Ferrari! And given normal/Gaussian distribution of any skill (designing Ferrari in this case) in general population - there will be an overwhelming amount of mediocre crap (aka AI slop) drowning out any good ones!

 

[Design FIRST]

Curiosity, creativity, critical thinking...

What gen AI really enables is now someone who is creative and imaginative in a field, even if they are not skilled in that field - be it drawing, writing, singing, coding - to translate their imagination into art.

Now you don't have to be an artist to make a painting of a scenery you imagined. You don't have to be a singer to make tune that is playing in your head. You don't have to be a coder to make software you thought of. You don't have to be a movie producer with a studio behind you to make a movie.

It really democratizes creative process.

How elegantly articulated. Thank you.

 

[klier]

There are many good reasons to have human designers over an AI model, but energy efficiency is not one of them.

It's not even a factual statement. It takes a lot of energy relatively, but who's to say the other way consumes less? I don't think it does at all.

How elegantly articulated. Thank you.

He is just stating that the sky is blue when there are no clouds.
We aren't talking about rocket science here

 

[Sunny]

It's not even a factual statement. It takes a lot of energy relatively, but who's to say the other way consumes less? I don't think it does at all.

Math says so -

A RTX 4090 GPU sustained load is ~400 watts. So one of them running SDXL continuously for a day would consume .4kwh * 24 = 9.6 kwh/day.

An avg human adult including lifestyle consumption in the developed world consumes ~90 kwh/day. Source

So a GPU consumes ~10x < energy than the avg adult human.

And that is not even counting the non-productive years of a human life. Yes, humans are terribly inefficient machines if you reduce them to their mere physical output. But fortunately, we are so much much more than that.