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Seat Miniata Project Helps You Rethink Current Mobility Trends and Their Effects

With streets getting more and more crowded, designers of all kinds are hard at work with future solutions to current and growing problems, in the process, creating vehicles that just may be seen on streets, someday anyway.
Seat Miniata Rendering 8 photos
Photo: Arnau Bozzo
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Such is the case of the Seat Miniata, a conceptual and rendering project by Arnau Bozzo, a product designer, and photographer from Barcelona, Spain. One thing to keep an eye out for when analyzing Bozzo’s work is the influence that climate and urban geography may have upon a vehicle’s design and capabilities.

The first thing you’ll notice about the Miniata, is that it’s quite small. I mean, it’s really right there in the name. The result is a vehicle that is only suitable for a driver and a single passenger. Some may even call this the perfect urban taxi. That’s actually not a bad utility for this vehicle. Nonetheless, the designer makes no mention that the car is meant for any taxi purposes.

By reducing the vehicle to include just one driver and one passenger, the dimensions of the car are also affected, thus resulting in a narrow “aisle” car. However, and this is an important one, does reducing a vehicle’s dimensions prove to be a benefit?

Seat Miniata Concept
Photo: Arnau Bozzo
What I mean by this is the following: when you take a regular four-to-five-seater vehicle, cut it in half and create two separate vehicles, do you really end up conserving space and energy, or is that just an illusion? Mathematically, an “illusion” may prove to be the real result.

Another conclusion we can draw from the body of the car is that it’s an EV. There doesn't seem to be much room for a classic ICE, and the styling itself, futuristic and edgy, helps sustain the idea the Miniata is electric. If it is, I wonder how many wheel motors it includes as this puppy looks like it’s a skateboard platform’s best friend.

Inside the car, the rear creates a curved space that seems fitting for someone who wants to relax while on their drive. One idea you’ll see expressed in the design is that of turning the passenger’s seat slightly towards the exterior of the car, just enough to create more legroom as the interior of vehicles are designed on a very grid-like layout. To access this space, the front seat tilts forward the way they do in a coupe or other two-door vehicles.

Now, at the front of the vehicle, the driver seems to be the most comfortable of all with massive legroom. This image again supports the EV platform theory. One feature the designer included in the Miniata is that of integrating a smart device support right into the steering wheel.

Seat Miniata Concept
Photo: Arnau Bozzo
I understand that it may look silly to us modern folk, but if we keep texting and driving, this may just be the solution we need. By securing a phone directly into the steering wheel, the driver of a vehicle has the device at his or her fingertips without having to avert their vision very far in order to check map routes and the likes.

As I studied the images that Bozzo provides, I got a feeling that this vehicle is meant to perform the function of a taxi. I say this because one image shows the driver checking trip routes and music, two things very often encountered when taking a taxi or Uber.

Earlier I mentioned that geography influences a vehicle’s design greatly. One thing I never saw while combing through Bozzo’s work was a door on the vehicle. Either it’s missing from the renderings, or, because of the coastal climate of Barcelona, the Miniata offers the occupants a breath of fresh air, always.

In conclusion, I'm glad I ran across the Miniata design. Why? Because as simple as it looks, this idea led me to rethink how the current urban mobility trends will end up affecting our environment and users themselves, even though some of these trends look appealing, at first.
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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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