Practicality Overview

Introduction

One of the main pillars of the MOV (Multi-Occupant Vehicle/ Cruiser) class of solar cars is the ability for them to be both efficient yet practical to the general consumer. Practicality in itself can be a difficult thing to score quantitatively and can have a wide range of interpretations. ASC organizers have done their best to score teams evenly and fairly using a set of guidelines and rubrics. As stated in Regulations (Section 13 - MOV Judging), "The goal for Multi-occupant vehicles is to efficiently transport people along a predefined route with considerations for practicality while driving at or above the Target Average Speed."

Impact of Practicality on Total Score

At ASC 2020, practicality will be a direct multiplier to the team's score as shown below (from Section 13.2):

S = (D / E) x P x C

Multi-occupant vehicle teams will be ranked according to their S value (highest score is best). Where D is the Total Person-Mile Distance, E is the Total External Energy usage of the solar car, P is the Practicality Score, and C is the Completion Factor.

Regulations TL;DR

The practicality score will be determined by a panel of judges (will not just be scrutineers but also "regular" people) and will be a mix of subject and objective evaluations. Practicality judging will be done during the rest day between FSGP and ASC ("display day"). The MOV Practicality Judging Rubric will not be released to judges or teams until the morning of the judging. However, some examples of practicality judging aspects are listed in Appendix L (see below).

ASC Practicality Judging

Although the official judging rubric is not yet available, we do have a good intuition of what the judges will be looking for.

What was listed in Appendix L:

ASC 2018 Practicality Scoring

The scoring results for ASC 2018 is summarized here:

Walkthrough of ASC 2018 Practicality Judging

During display day we were given a hint of what to expect during the actual practicality scoring. One of the judges gave us some hints as to what to talk about during our practicality presentation including special features, storage space, vehicle performance (i.e max torque, horsepower, 0-60mph acceleration time, top speed, efficiency, range, hill climb, braking), and user-comfort features (i.e Noise Vibration Harshness, ventilation, passenger space, storage).

The following explanation breaks-down the different categories of scoring and how they were assessed during practicality judging.

Control and Operation - Walked through how to operate the vehicle (i.e push-to-start, parking brake, lights, etc). We were timed on how long it took to set-up our array for charging. Setting the parking brake after parking. How easy the car appeared to operate during the dynamic performance tests.

Occupant Convenience and Comfort - Some judges took turns sitting in the vehicle; we talked about and showed-off our vehicle's user features (i.e infotainment, camera, adjustable seats, storage, cruise control)

Feature - Special features we included in our car that might be unique to other cars.

Curb appeal/ Look and feel - The overall styling and fit-and-finish of the car (how panels line up, gaps, how everything integrates together). Both for interior and exterior of vehicle.

Je ne sais quoi - Literal translation 'I don't know what'. Those things that just stick out to the judge but don't fit into a specific category. Maybe more to do with styling, things that strike as "well designed"

Dynamic Performance - A series of tests involving driving the car. This included parking (reversing into spot and parallel parking between cones) and a short drive with a judge in the passenger seat (fully buckled in with 5-pt harness, wore helmet) while attempting to drive up a steep hill. Mean to assess the drivability of the car in difficult scenarios and how it felt while inside the car.

References

ASC 2018 Practicality Scoring:

Regulations (ASC 2020 Regulations - Rev A)