Blood, sweat, tears...anything to ensure your comfort in transit!
Chris Bui, Michelle Chang, Andrea Gagliano, Ricky Lee
View on GitHub | Demo piece at 2017 Silicon Valley Maker Faire
Contributions: Concept design and storyboards; electrical and software prototyping; Android dev; photography and videography
Uberick is a critical design piece re-imagining Uber-esque ride sharing services as the primary mode of transportation, with an added 1920s flair. The Uber model and app is applied to the traditional rickshaw with the personalization aspects taken to an extreme by allowing riders to choose their car brand, a theme song, their driver’s attire, and the manner in which the driver greets them. Rickshaws, a visually salient representation of class differences between the puller and rider and of the service industry more generally, are juxtaposed against the Uber app and business model, which is focused on automation, efficiency, and personalization. The goal of this juxtaposition is to call attention to practices such as hiding workers behind machines and interfaces to cater to the comforts and convenience of consumers. Our hope is that Uberick provokes people and encourages them to consider exploitative or dehumanizing forms of human service labor that may still exist and its presence in their communities.
Read the full report, detailing the design process, preliminary sketches, and fabrication journey.
Read the instructables document, explaining how to fabricate, code, and wire your own Uberick rickshaw.