The self-driving car industry is at a crossroads. After years of high expectations and lofty predictions, the futurologists can no longer confidently predict a world of hands-free, zero accident driving. Behind the scenes, however, the big players are pressing on with the tech, foreseeing a future where certain journeys – but not all – will benefit hugely from true autonomous vehicles. The autonomous vehicle is coming, no doubt, but right now, it is waiting, cogitating and calculating exactly who and what it’s for.
Alphabet’s Waymo Division is currently leading the pack. The project started at Google back in 2009, with a focus on engineering, software and sensors and it wasn’t until 2015 that their first car appeared. The cute, bug-like Firefly briefly flew the flag for the new technology, serving as a testbed for the new era as it flitted around Google’s vast Mountain View campus.
The company’s Head of Design, YooJung Ahn, has spent nearly eight years at Waymo. Her team has worked closely with the engineers from the outset, finding out new ways of designing for autonomy. We talked to her about the latest version of Waymo’s self-driving machine. ‘We sort of had a blank slate [with Firefly], but our biggest learning from the project was that when developing a car, scaling was a big issue,’ Ahn says, ‘It was eye opening. So that’s why we decided to work with OEMs.’ In addtion to Firefly, Waymo’s tech has been incorporated into Prius, Lexus and Chrysler platforms. Now it’s the turn of an all-new car, the Jaguar I-PACE.
Ahn, who studied industrial design at Hongik University gaining a Masters in Design Methods from the IIT Institute of Design, oversaw all these machines. ‘The cars are all prepared for our use,’ the designer says, ‘it’s not just about making panels differently – it’s about internal materials being more durable, creating new consoles, headliners, etc.’ But most of all, it’s about incorporating Waymo’s arsenal of sensors.
At its core, Waymo is about software and sensors. As well as integrating the latter, Ahn has to bring a sense of unity, corporate coherence and functional simplicity. Waymo Driver number 5 is built upon the I-PACE platform, an accomplished pure EV. It was a natural choice for several reasons. ‘We wanted an EV platform with a lot of power,’ Ahn says, ‘We also wanted to give our user group a bit of diversity. The [Chrysler Pacifica] minivan was good for families. But our role is to have maximum flexibility.’ As well as the flagship I-PACE, of which the first thirty or so can currently be seen in Phoenix and the Bay Area, there are advanced plans for a Waymo-powered truck and a smaller delivery vehicle. As Ahn notes, ‘the technology is evolving every day,’ and the Waymo approach evolves along with it.
While Firefly had a distinct character, the Waymo I-PACE is rather more explicit in its display of technical might. ‘When we started in 2013 people had no idea [about autonomous cars],’ Ahn says, ‘We made our first car look friendly, not intimidating. It wasn’t meant to be a "scary robot car". The I-PACE is a bit more sophisticated, with the recognisable essence of the Jaguar peeking out from beneath a carapace of sensors. We work closely with the engineering team from the beginning,’ Ahn notes, pointing out that elements like layout, proportions, shapes and even the materials in the hefty roof pod are largely determined by the system requirements.