Brian Black’s ‘The Overview Effect’ is designed to increase public understanding by allowing users to remotely operate unmanned rovers on other worlds using VR. He believes design can engage at every level. ‘In the future, the overall product experience will be the target,’ he says.
It’s an inspirational time to be studying transport design. Everything is up for grabs. While the automakers struggle with the aesthetics of autonomy and the shape of zero emissions, students have a blank space to imagine the world of future mobility. Conventional automotive aesthetics are being jettisoned – you’d also have to hunt the global graduate shows to find anything powered by an old-fashioned internal combustion engine – but the appeal of sports, racing and performance still lingers.
Writer: Jonathan Bell
Another off-world vision, Dominik Krug’s Land Rover for Mars was also driven by the high-profile tech of Elon Musk and SpaceX. ‘The project is envisioned as a piece in the puzzle to make the dream of a Mars colony a reality,’ he explains, ‘intended to land on the surface of Mars in 2048 to celebrate 100 years of Land Rover.’ Obviously a fan of the off-road brand, he also puts Porsche at the top of his list. ‘Interiors will demand a lot of creativity from the industry in the future,’ he suggests.
The Volvo Voyage imagines a Level 5 autonomous vehicle for a family of four, for a future where design is the differentiator when no-one needs to drive. ‘The interior needs to be flexible,’ the designer explains, pointing out the play area for kids and ability to set up family movie time. ‘Volvo is definitely the brand I love,’ says Ding Zeng, ‘they’re simple but not boring, elegant yet modern.’
Po Yuan Huang’s Autopack concept brings design to the autonomous car, inspired by the Gogoro electric scooter and the ‘stance and the visual tension an attractive automobile should have’. Designed to carry backpack-style cargo modules in drone delivery mode, Autopack also functions as a passenger car, specifically for crowded urban areas where ‘owning vehicles is a luxury’. ‘I admire the EV startup Lucid,’ he says, ‘as well as classic designers like Harley Earl, Flaminio Bertoni and J Mays.’
