The biggest disruption of the last century: Car Design Dialogue panel

Changing Demands, New Technologies and How Transportation Design is Meeting the Challenge

Moderated by Car Design News’s Abel Sampson, this February 2022 Panel engaged one of the biggest questions the vehicle design industry is facing: how to navigate the most fundamental disruption of the last century. Customer demands are changing as disruptive technologies become more widely available. Those changes are inspiring the automotive industry to think differently and challenge the status quo. That makes the next generation of automotive and transportation design absolutely critical to winning the hearts and minds of consumers.

The three panellists dove right into the issues at the heart of this question, drawing on their experiences and perspectives with start-ups, design software, and extensive resource provider. This really is a dream team of thought leaders bringing their insights and hopes for the future.

The Highlights

Derek Jenkins, VP Design at Lucid Motors

• These challenges are being driven by the high expectations of consumers becoming accustomed to exceptional and accessible digital experiences.
• One way Lucid is tackling these challenges is by creating an open design studio with all the disciplines (from sketch through to marketing) in one space, preferably even one floor.
• His wish for the future of tech? more seamless experiences blending the real and virtual worlds, with augmented reality bridging the gap.

“I think for us it’s really about the seamless kind of working relationship between the design team responsible for interior architecture, the user experience team that’s responsible for what’s on the screen, the flow, the usability, the logic, and our hardware and software team. Those three groups really have to be linked together.”

Derek Jenkins

Thomas Heermann, VP Automotive, Conceptual Design and Extended Reality at Autodesk

• Connected software at the center of workflows is key to bringing different disciplines together. An agile design studio is key to this dynamic, allowing everyone involved more creativity and opportunities to collaborate.
• Bringing disciplines together also means bringing tools together, and that enables completely different perspectives for each role.
• His wish for the future of tech? the heart of what Autodesk does: aiming for data convergence in two clicks.

“We’ve seen the need for speed and creativity happening because creativity makes the difference in this new world. That’s the most important advancement, if it give us the tools to be creative at the heart. And also the convergence of technologies. This whole notion of dedicated people in the studio: everybody wants to create, everybody wants to visualize and present and tell a story. We see this really merging together in an open and connected platform.”

Thomas Heermann

Michael Check, CEO of Linkage Design

• Young designers are looking for these open, creative environments; many don’t want the conventional, large OEM experience.
• Training and education have never been more valuable than they are now, both for young designers learning career software and for senior designers learning new tools
• His wish for the future of tech? elevating augmented reality so we’re seeing people rather than avatars, in real environments rather than backplates.

“We see a lot more focus on interiors, you know, as far as creature comforts and social interaction and things like that. So that’s cool, because we’re starting to introduce more product designers into the automotive space. You know, our biggest thing is finding good resources. That’s always a big constraint. And introducing product design to the automotive or transportation space is really helpful because they look at things a little bit differently.”

Michael Check

You can watch this Car Design Dialogue in full at CarDesignNews.com, or you can access it on YouTube.

Looking for more on this subject? Check out this piece on Lucid’s design philosophy and listen to our podcast with the APMA’s Colin Dhillon on Society 5.0 and on The Smart City

Bookmark the Autodesk Design Studio blog for stories, updates, and resources. You can also subscribe to our VRED and Alias YouTube channels and follow us on Facebook.