Overview
- A 23-student team at Eindhoven University of Technology revealed the prototype—called Stella Juva or Stella Jova—after about a year of work and temporary pauses in their studies to build the vehicle.
- The compact ambulance is fitted with onboard medical gear including an X-ray, ultrasound, tuberculosis test kits, a defibrillator and refrigerated vaccine storage to enable point-of-care diagnosis and treatment.
- The vehicle uses roof-mounted solar panels and a solar-charged battery to run propulsion and medical devices, which the team says could allow long, off-grid operation and cut fuel costs for outreach missions.
- Project-supplied performance figures—top speed of about 120 km/h and a sunny-day range up to 715 km—remain unverified and the team acknowledges the need to improve off-road robustness before real-world deployment.
- The students plan to begin pilot testing in Kenya in August and are seeking technical and industry partners to scale and ruggedize the design for humanitarian use in remote regions.