The 2022 Toyota Logistic Design Competition announced yesterday at Toyota's Logiconomi Forum in Antwerp, Belgium, that University of Houston Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture and Design industrial design (ID) student Jacob Abraham (’22) is this year's first place winner for his design of Oro, a delivery vehicle created for transportation of valuable items in urban environments. Organized by the Toyota Material Handling Europe Design Center, in collaboration with Toyota's European Design Studio and Toyota Europe Design Development, the competition challenged students across the globe to develop strategies for delivery logistics in urban settings where delivery has become increasingly difficult due to increasing density.

Oro was born during Abraham's senior year when his professor, ID co-director Mark Kimbrough, tasked the studio with developing a design addressing micro logistics. Kimbrough recommended Abraham and his classmates enter the Toyota Logistic Design Competition. The opportunity asked designers to tackle one of several delivery issues, including how to deliver, what to deliver, where and when to deliver, and who will deliver. Abraham decided to focus on how to deliver as the central idea of his design.

"I focused on the transportation side of things. Specifically, how to get from point A to point B," Abraham shared. “I wanted to concentrate on the vehicle and the product solution.”

Oro, which translates to "gold" in Spanish, acquired its name due to its overall form, which includes two sliding rings on the vehicle. Although there is no actual gold in the product design, the name Oro is a metaphor for its two rings and the precious items transported by the device.

Oro, which translates to "gold" in Spanish, acquired its name due to its overall form, which includes two sliding rings on the vehicle. Although there is no actual gold in the product design, the name Oro is a metaphor for its two rings and the precious items transported by the device.

While creating his cutting-edge design, Abraham emulated scooters, bird scooters, and other objects with smaller-scale transportation micro-mobility. Oro utilizes ABS plastic (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene) and comes in various finishes. The vehicle has two modes of use – carry and ride modes, with a deck in front as a kickstand. Toyota's e-Palette autonomous vehicle, a part of their mobility exhibit in conjunction with the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, served as a muse for Oro's aesthetic.

"My main source of inspiration was the round void design on the micro e-Palette," Abraham explained. "I took strong inspiration from that idea and adapted it into the final design of Oro."

Drawing from his life experiences as a Dallas native and now a Houstonian, Abraham heavily researched the future of logistics. He carefully considered different factors that could delay or obstruct a package's delivery.

Seeking to solve issues of micro-mobility and urbanization, Abraham designed Oro for use in densely populated areas consisting of midrise buildings, construction, and low access to parking. Oro is intended to be loaded into a delivery vehicle before leaving the fulfillment center. When the driver encounters an obstructed pathway, making it challenging to navigate the delivery vehicle, the driver can take Oro out of the delivery vehicle and then navigate Oro to reach the delivery location destination more efficiently. The design offers the ability to carry three different sizes of modular packing and even includes a handlebar equipped with a navigation screen for routing through obstructed pathways.

The Toyota Logistics Design Competition is the first time Abraham has entered a competition of this magnitude, so his top-place finish is quite an accomplishment. The design challenge allowed Abraham to explore his passion for city planning and provided him with the opportunity to work with the urban environment. He hopes to pursue impactful community design and establish more livable cities.