1. Introduction
The concrete emergence of the idea of innovation, which is the basis of lean and new product development, depends on the automotive concept design phase and proficiency studies, which are at the beginning of the flow. Although the first thing that comes to mind here is the new product, the newly designed concrete object, interdisciplinary studies that can realize the vehicle functions or functions aimed by the innovation are in practice at the automotive concept design stage. The physical location of these autonomous technologies in practice creates new support technology requirements along with function needs. Today innovation has revealed the design of services along with products and technologies [1] [2] [3]. Therefore, autonomous vehicles, which have just started to be included in the automotive industry, have begun to materialize and become clear with their needs at the beginning of the lean product development process (automotive concept design stage), together with new technology installations. The word automotive concept design or design means creating a new plan or process, innovation, or creating a new function, system, technology, model, form, style, depending on the environment in which it is used [3] [4] [5]. This situation can be defined as the flow of creating innovation under a concrete main model by systematically defining the needs to shape the idea in line with a purpose or target. Industrial design engineering, specialization or industrial design discipline; It is positioned under the automotive design department, which is at the beginning of the lean product development processes in the automotive manufacturing industry, and maintains its importance in the competition with different units and intermediate processes that add value to the company [5] [6] [7]. Automotive manufacturing industry is the sector with the highest added value together with heavy global competition in terms of providing national and international sustainable socio-economic development. The high added value increase in the sector is related to being able to dominate new technology and change, to make original and new designs, to have redevelopment or variable production capability and knowledge. For this reason, in order to contribute to the realization goals of sustainable socio-economic development, systems that can only switch from production focus to new product design focus and create value can survive today. However, when the main reasons for the current lean product development practices in the automotive industry are examined, one is resource management and optimization, and the other is innovation and design management [3] [5] [7]. New product design or automotive concept design realized in the automotive industry drives innovation management, value creation and preservation in the entire process. Therefore, this discipline has an extremely widespread and dominant effect on both the parts of the automotive industry companies and the lean product development process. Product design continues to work on meeting or creating the needs and needs of individuals in general, and the discipline of automotive concept design performs the same task under autonomous vehicles. In summary, the design profession transfers this need and requirement back to the individuals as consumption within the boundaries of the “product” within the scope of a model as an innovation. Consumption turns into design with new needs, and design turns into consumption with innovations. The said cycle creates a dynamic structure or a cyclical process with production and consumption phases. Simplifying the new product development flow, which takes place in a repetitive and cyclical structure in today’s conditions, optimizing innovation-oriented, is the process of transferring the innovation definitions to the automotive concept design discipline at the beginning of the process, and transferring the innovation back to consumption at the product boundaries with the same value in the final new product.
Therefore, the basic starting point of automotive design or product design is what the user expects or can expect from a new product [8] [9]. It is no longer considered sufficient for a newly designed product to fulfill its functional task in today’s competitive conditions. Apart from this, the designer has to know, understand and determine what the user expects and make a design that fulfills its task in the appropriate possibilities. On the other hand, the act of design includes interdisciplinary processes and approaches in the automotive industry. Therefore, the design of a new product takes place in the lean product development stages, where multidisciplinary innovation with high time and investment in the automotive industry is preserved from the beginning to the end of the process. However, in order to survive under global competitive conditions, automotive industry companies must reduce their costs (design, development, test and analysis, manufacturing and supply, sales and marketing, etc.), at least keep them under control, increase their brand values and make their lives by delivering their products on time [3] [9] [10] [11] [12]. In addition, automotive industry companies in particular aim to design and develop new products by differentiating safety and reliability, durability and functionality with the preferable appearance of new products, ease of use or autonomous use, and to deliver these vehicles to the customers before their competitors. For this reason, due diligence in the automotive concept design stages, which are deeply affected by autonomous vehicle technologies, has important consequences for the creation and preservation of the innovation values of the envisaged lean product development process. The study has important information and findings that form an interface in the application of autonomous vehicle technologies together with the automotive design discipline of the sector. Another important subject that is emphasized is the structural comparisons related to the integration or competition of new product development studies led by the mergers and acquisitions that started in the automotive manufacturing industry. In addition, data were collected for due diligence on the performance and application possibilities of technology acquisition or creation in global and local automotive manufacturing industry companies. Therefore, the new approach that the research focuses on, how the automotive concept design stages create a workflow together with new autonomous technology applications, and the comparative examination of the said workflow in different company structures will make a positive contribution to the innovation applications of the next generation vehicles. The study primarily examined the automotive concept design phase definitions and publications on new autonomous vehicle technologies in the literature. In the following sections, the results of the synthesis together with the field research method and the one-to-one interview analyzes obtained from the field are shared.
2. Literature Review; Autonomous Technologies and Concept Design Stages
The second part of the research focused on the definitions of new autonomous vehicle technologies and automotive concept design stages in the literature. Therefore, this section is gathered under two consecutive sub-titles and shares the literature approaches specific to the subject. In addition, the new autonomous vehicle technologies, which are included in the first sub-title in the chapter, guided the research within the scope of one-to-one observation during the field studies. Automotive concept design stages, which are the second subheadings of this section, are the living stages and variables that have been observed both in the literature and during field studies. Therefore, the stage or stage definitions determined in the literature and observed in the field studies were evaluated over the whole process.
2.1. New Autonomous Vehicle Technologies
New autonomous vehicle technologies remodel the entire flow from the concept design phase at the beginning of lean product development to the pre-series production phase. Today, advanced simulation and virtual modelling techniques, software and hardware used by the automotive concept design discipline provide better optimization and integration of components involved in vehicle development [13] [14] [15] [16] [17]. Product lifecycle (PL), of autonomous vehicle technologies, the competitiveness of local companies also reveals the stages and results of original automotive design. According to the results of one-to-one interviews and joint analysis with the design and development managers integrated 3D vehicle modelling (Catia, Solid, Alias, etc.), new product design techniques and communication integration, together with the increase in user experience research and alternative use scenarios, the decrease in the need for physical prototypes, resource management, performance and cost provides gains. As autonomous vehicle designs become widespread, special applications for traffic-vehicle-communication-environment become more suitable, and the chance to include different vehicle concepts depending on their function and usage situations or driving environment increases. Therefore, depending on the changing, differentiating business models, in the long run, some automotive industry companies may choose to be a mobility provider and therefore control a larger part of the vehicle life cycle. The majority of today’s vehicles are designed for personal property. For this reason, it is aimed to meet a number of different requirements today and in the future, which cause the increase of five or more passengers and large luggage capacity, alternative fuel and safety regulations, and similar important variables in new autonomous vehicle designs. In addition, it is observed that the current changes in the concept of individual mobility and vehicle ownership models, autonomous vehicles come to life in lighter or modular concept structures [17] [18] [19] [20]. The first versions of autonomous vehicles to go into mass production under competition have come to life in optimizing under existing technologies of over-engineered parts and components, often designed to cope with peak loads and performance demands caused by the user. This has allowed the design and development of smaller and lighter components that do not need to meet a wide range of extreme performance points in autonomous vehicle design.
Due to today’s communication network speed, the increased usage and travel times of autonomous vehicles create a significant disadvantage on the life and maintenance requirements of the vehicle power transmission system. Depending on the needs for highly autonomous vehicle usage time (communication network services and charging structure), the characteristics, capacity and weight of the energy systems in the vehicle affect the reuse time (Table 1). In addition, comfort, entertainment and communication systems in autonomous vehicle technologies, human-machine interface systems and similar shared vehicle energy use, increasing digital technology parts are increasingly bringing the design of fuel and powertrains to the fore (Table 1). However, today the increasing availability of accurate real-time information on traffic and environmental infrastructure, public and private roads pricing and other conditions related to usage infrastructure has provided a blueprint for the implementation of advanced autonomous vehicles. The autonomous driving levels determined by the American Association of Automotive Engineers (SAE) are given below (Table 1).
Today, the autonomous capabilities of a vehicle can be at very different levels (Table 1). In autonomous vehicles, digital transmissions along with electronic drivetrains have begun to use geospatial data to inform shift points [21] [22] [23]. The system integration of such road and environmental infrastructure data with event data that causes travel speed-time changes such as traffic density or red lights provides a more efficient use of vehicle energy management. Therefore, while the integration or use of autonomous driving capabilities into our life model is a visible development, the design of these technologies under the future