From mini jackets to wearable coolers, if you dream it, DevisePDX can build it

By Digital Trends Staff Published August 25, 2016

There’s Silicon Valley in San Francisco and Silicon Alley in New York City, but tucked away in the Pacific Northwest, Portland’s Silicon Forest draws its own oddball collection of makers, tinkerers and visionaries. In our new video series, Got it Made, join host Ezra Cimino-Hurt as he meets some of the unique people who marry cutting edge tech with innovative ideas in the city “where young people go to retire.” And believe us, they’re doing Portland proud.

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Meet Cera Crockett of DevisePDX, a concept development firm that does everything from prototyping, to pattern engineering, to global material sourcing, to hosting hands-on workshops. Their clients are just as diverse, with representation from Fortune 500 companies, local designers, and first-time entrepreneurs.

So what exactly is a concept development company? In essence, Cera told us, her clients come to DevisePDX with an end product in mind, and her team has the thrilling job of reverse-engineering a solution. “Every single product is so new and so different that I get to be putting a puzzle together backwards,” she said.

One of her most recent projects comes from Nike, which charged DevisePDX with the task of creating an action figure sporting one of the company’s signature Dri-FIT jackets. Not only did Crockett create a miniature Dri-FIT hoodie, but she also took tiny details into consideration — everything from the color to the seam tape in the hood — to ensure that her product was absolutely perfect.

She also told us about a project from Gatorade in 2014, which involved an insulated soccer training bag. DevisePDX took this concept from illustration to a prototype, and finally, to physical samples, which were tested in the 2015 World Cup by both the Brazil and U.S. national soccer teams.

How’s that for creative problem solving?

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The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is concerned that Tesla’s use of social media and its website makes false promises about the automaker’s full-self driving (FSD) software.
The warning dates back from May, but was made public in an email to Tesla released on November 8.
The NHTSA opened an investigation in October into 2.4 million Tesla vehicles equipped with the FSD software, following three reported collisions and a fatal crash. The investigation centers on FSD’s ability to perform in “relatively common” reduced visibility conditions, such as sun glare, fog, and airborne dust.
In these instances, it appears that “the driver may not be aware that he or she is responsible” to make appropriate operational selections, or “fully understand” the nuances of the system, NHTSA said.
Meanwhile, “Tesla’s X (Twitter) account has reposted or endorsed postings that exhibit disengaged driver behavior,” Gregory Magno, the NHTSA’s vehicle defects chief investigator, wrote to Tesla in an email.
The postings, which included reposted YouTube videos, may encourage viewers to see FSD-supervised as a “Robotaxi” instead of a partially automated, driver-assist system that requires “persistent attention and intermittent intervention by the driver,” Magno said.
In one of a number of Tesla posts on X, the social media platform owned by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, a driver was seen using FSD to reach a hospital while undergoing a heart attack. In another post, a driver said he had used FSD for a 50-minute ride home. Meanwhile, third-party comments on the posts promoted the advantages of using FSD while under the influence of alcohol or when tired, NHTSA said.
Tesla’s official website also promotes conflicting messaging on the capabilities of the FSD software, the regulator said.
NHTSA has requested that Tesla revisit its communications to ensure its messaging remains consistent with FSD’s approved instructions, namely that the software provides only a driver assist/support system requiring drivers to remain vigilant and maintain constant readiness to intervene in driving.
Tesla last month unveiled the Cybercab, an autonomous-driving EV with no steering wheel or pedals. The vehicle has been promoted as a robotaxi, a self-driving vehicle operated as part of a ride-paying service, such as the one already offered by Alphabet-owned Waymo.
But Tesla’s self-driving technology has remained under the scrutiny of regulators. FSD relies on multiple onboard cameras to feed machine-learning models that, in turn, help the car make decisions based on what it sees.
Meanwhile, Waymo’s technology relies on premapped roads, sensors, cameras, radar, and lidar (a laser-light radar), which might be very costly, but has met the approval of safety regulators.