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Michelin Design Challenge Focuses on Healthcare With a Honda Design From Wuhan

The Michelin Design Challenge is one of the most sought-after automotive competitions in the world. Why? Well, having 'Michelin' in the title certainly helps it. In addition, any time we have a gander at a project that made it to the competition, we’re bound to see some weird but life-saving tech.
Honda Passage Concept 9 photos
Photo: Xue Zhao / Jiaxin Liu
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We have before us is known as the Honda Passage Concept. Unlike most projects we’ve featured so far, this one includes more than one owner. The two brains behind this potentially life-saving project are Xue Zhao and Jiaxin Liu of Wuhan, China.

What they’ve designed is nothing terrestrial or airborne (wink, wink), but rather sea-worthy. No, it’s not some souped up pirate ship, it's an entire medical system meant for the Philippines. Oh, and don’t go thinking this is something we’re going to see pop up in the next five years, as this has so much tech on it.

Currently, our public health systems rely on a number of vehicles and tools to successfully save a life. The Passage is supposed to incorporate as much of the technology found on those vehicles and combines them into one neat floating package.

Honda Passage Concept
Photo: Xue Zhao / Jiaxin Liu
Now, the way it’s all set up is rather ingenious. Just to make things clear, it’s basically a med-evac vehicle. One of the first things we see are those four fin-like legs it sits on. These fins are actually the motors for the Passage and include a propulsion system like that on a motorboat or jet ski.

Atop those four legs, we see the carriage and the remainder of the vehicle. Here’s where things get interesting. The interior is designed with three different sections, each one performing a different role. Like any other car or ambulance you may have seen, or luckily haven’t seen, there is room for a driver, passenger, and a small operating floor.

The driver’s sector isn’t much to write home about. As you would expect, it’s just meant for driving and includes a steering wheel and controls for throttle and other functions. But, in case of an emergency, the vehicle can be set to autopilot so that the driver can assist the doctor if needed.

Opposite and a little to the rear, much like the positioning in an ambulance, we find the doctor's area. Here we find a number of instruments and monitors used in making sure Patient Zero is alive and stabilized.

Honda Passage Concept
Photo: Xue Zhao / Jiaxin Liu
As for Patient Zero and his hypothetical accident, they’ll be sitting smack dab in the middle of this Honda awaiting to arrive at the Hospital Center, but we’ll talk about that soon enough. When Patient Zero was first put into the vehicle, they couldn’t help but notice a sensation of floating while being loaded onto the Passage. That feeling of weightlessness actually came from the conveyor belt they were loaded onto.

Yes, the gurney we normally have a patient lie down on in an ambulance is actually a conveyor belt. The idea behind this is simple. Once the injured patient finally arrives at the Hospital Center, which is basically just a massive floating superstructure with hospital equipment, a hatch door opens, and they take a sliding trip down to an operating table, where they’ll be taken care of real quick.

Honestly, this all sounds like one of those stories where “you go in but never come out”. There’s a reason the designers left out the part about what happens to a patient once they’ve been released from the hospital, or how they get back home. No one ever does. Just kidding guys, Halloween was a month or so ago.
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About the author: Cristian Curmei
Cristian Curmei profile photo

A bit of a nomad at heart (being born in Europe and raised in several places in the USA), Cristian is enamored with travel trailers, campers and bikes. He also tests and writes about urban means of transportation like scooters, mopeds and e-bikes (when he's not busy hosting our video stories and guides).
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