Inspired by nature, refined by numbers: formal–functional bioinspiration and intelligent computation in vehicle design

For centuries, naturalist philosophers and scientists have studied the form and function of living organisms, striving to propose theories that describe the interplay between these two essential components of biological entities. This historically significant scientific quest has also emerged as a fundamental question in the design of man-made systems. In particular, humanity's long-standing ambition to create machines and structures that imitate living organisms has driven the development of the interdisciplinary field of biomimetics. In this work, we explore and formalize various avenues for bioinspiration in engineering and industrial design, aiming to classify different types of formal and functional bioinspiration during early-stage design processes. Furthermore, we critically evaluate the evolution of the form-function relationship in vehicle design from the early twentieth century to the present era, with a particular focus on automobiles. This effort to envision the future culminates in the introduction of a framework proposed as the fifth historical phase of automobile design, where intelligent computation plays a pivotal role in integrating styling and engineering into a unified design environment. We anticipate this work to serve as a starting point for the formalization of the role of artificial intelligence in shaping the future of the design industry.