About the project
Parodyne.com is an ongoing project of mine meant to provide commentary on the state of the self-driving car industry, harkening back to the earlier days when there was a much thicker veil cast over the technology and we weren’t allowed to talk much about what we were doing. The goal of the project inspired the name - a parody of Velodyne, a pioneer in LiDAR sensor technology. Those working in the self-driving industry will see easter eggs sprinkled all over the site. Parodyne incorporates several of my favorite hobbies; graphic design, satirical writing, model making, sticker making, and poking fun at my main source of income.
The project consists of a website, replica lidar sensors, a mascot (Cal), a Twitter account, profiles of the fictional companies in the Parodyne universe, and a fake history of the self-driving car through the decades. Leonardo Da Vinci, MK Ultra, New Coke, Trump Steaks, it’s got it all. You can even request a sweet Parodyne sticker pack from the website.
Company Lore
Parodyne is a caricature of a self-driving car company, stuck in the early-ish days (think 2017) of the industry. It is a failing company troubled by lack of funding, poor business practices, and still not offering a single functional product. As far as anyone can tell, the only person doing any sort of meaningful work at the company these days is the CTO, who also manages the company's Twitter account. (They've been on the search for a CEO since the company's inception). There is evidence that Parodyne also employed a recruiter for a few months in 2022, however it is likely she was paid under the table in cash, as the company has never listed her in any of their tax filings, and she doesn’t mention the job on her LinkedIn profile. The few engineers at Parodyne left the company under dubious circumstances after the PR manager, Dan, revealed that Parodyne sensors aren't actually functional while on a cocain and heroin-induced bender. Dan is now eight months sober.
Physical
Believability is a big part of the kitsch of Parodyne. For the brand to be even somewhat believable, real physical models needed to be made. This was also my first proper attempt at product photography.
The non-functional sensor pictured here was 3D printed in Onyx with a Markforged printer and painted with automotive paint. The lens is metallic vinyl wrap.
Two Parodyne replica lidars bearing the serial numbers 0420 and 0666 are currently fitted to Oxa’s (formerly Oxbotica) first autonomous vehicle, Genie, in their corporate headquarters in Oxford, England.
Graphics
This portion of the project actually stemmed from me getting frustrated that I couldn’t find any seller on Etsy that would cut the Parodyne black vinyl decals required for my fake lidars exactly the way I wanted. This prompted me to go and buy a Cricut Maker.
The graphic design really kicked off when I decided that I should make a website for Parodyne. I’ve made all of the graphics on the website, with the exception of a few AI-generated images on the Fake history of the self-driving car page, which are marked as such. The NFS-420 photos were my first real attempt at product photography.
Cal, the company’s crash test dummy mascot, is depicted wearing the helmet I had originally made in real life as a self-driving car Halloween costume. The helmet was equipped with a fake lidar sensor made from a hair product container, 3D printed radars, and cheap camera lenses from Ali-express. This was followed up with another, slightly higher-quality fake lidar which could be magnetized to my car. The helmet does make an appearance on the Parodyne website, being worn by my old manager’s dog.
Inspiration
Inspiration for this project includes This Is Spinal Tap, Silicon Valley, How to Sharpen Pencils by David Reese, Aperture Laboratories, The Onion, and the @thelastblockbuster Twitter account.