• Automotive Innovation Forum, Darmstadt — Day 1 Recap

    AI, Speed, and the Human Edge: Day 1 at Automotive Innovation Forum The first day of the Automotive Innovation Forum in Darmstadt made one thing clear: the automotive industry is not waiting for the future to arrive. It is actively designing it. Across the day’s keynotes, panels, and customer sessions, a consistent message emerged: the…

    Innovation

  • Where physical meets digital: Granstudio’s DIGIPHY and Autodesk VRED

    Automotive design decisions are made under constant pressure: packaging evolves, engineering constraints tighten, and teams must align quickly — without losing the original design intent. The process involves high costs and long lead times. That’s why Granstudio designed DIGIPHY, an ecosystem of next generation mixed-reality design solutions to make those decisions faster, with confidence, and…

    PRODUCT NEWS

  • Automotive Innovation Forum 2026 – meet the speakers

    The 2026 edition of our Autodesk Automotive Innovation Forum is shaping up to be one of our best ones yet. While we feature fantastic exhibitions and displays, the high point will certainly be the amazing presentations. Here is a taste of some of the speakers you will be hearing from at our event this year.…

    DESIGN STUDIO

  • 5 trends shaping automotive design ahead of AIF26

    A preview of the shifts reshaping how vehicles get designed – and why speed is the thread tying them all together. Automotive design has always been a balancing act between vision and viability, between what inspires and what ships. What’s changed is the clock. Programs are compressing. Expectations around quality, sustainability, and differentiation are rising…

    DESIGN STUDIO

  • Why Darmstadt? Because some cities are built to think

    For the third year running, Autodesk is bringing the Automotive Innovation Forum (AIF) to Darmstadt, Germany. If you’ve attended before, you already know the city rewards attention. If you’re joining us for the first time in June, here’s why this isn’t just a convenient European venue – and why we keep coming back. A building…

    STORIES & INSPIRATION

  • AIF 2026 Evolution: Celebrating 20 years of the decisions shaping automotive design and manufacturing

    The automotive industry is in a period of continuous evolution—shaped by shifting consumer expectations, advancing technologies, and increasing pressure to deliver faster and more efficiently. At Automotive Innovation Forum (AIF) 2026, that evolution takes center stage. Hosted by industry analyst Roger Atkins, this year’s event brings together leaders from automotive design and the manufacturing industry…

    DESIGN STUDIO

  • Canvas to mesh: Accelerating automotive concept development 

    Multi-view reference images converted into a proportionally scaled 3D mesh inside Alias.  From sketch to model, faster Before a surface is ever finalized, designers need to answer a fundamental question: Does this proportion work?  Traditionally, that meant building early NURBS or SubD geometry — not to resolve Class-A surfacing, but simply to evaluate stance, overhangs, and overall volume. It’s necessary work,…

    PRODUCT NEWS

  • Reimagining Automotive Icons: Meet the Top 3 Finalists of the 2026 AIF Student Design Competition

    Three student design teams reinterpret historic vehicles through iconic art movements, combining Alias surface modeling and VRED visualization to bring their concepts to life. For two years running, the Automotive Innovation Forum (AIF) Student Design Competition has invited emerging designers to explore new ideas using professional automotive design workflows. The 2026 brief, “The Original &…

    STORIES & INSPIRATION

  • Sketch, surface, iterate: teaching transport design for real-world practice at University of Staffordshire

    Transport design education is evolving under competing pressures: rapidly advancing digital tools, the rise of AI-assisted workflows, and industry demand for graduates who can think across disciplines while still mastering fundamentals. At the University of Staffordshire, the relaunched Transport Design program is addressing these pressures by combining craft-based making, digital fluency, and strong industry engagement…

    STORIES & INSPIRATION

  • Design smarter cars faster: Real-Time Aerodynamics with Autodesk Alias & NavPack 

    How Alias, VRED, and NavPack connect design, visualization, and engineering through real-time physics insight. We’ve got a new NavPack webinar for you on the Autodesk Design Studio YouTube channel. It explores how automotive teams can bring real-time engineering insight directly into creative workflows, without disrupting your established design and visualization processes. This session, with host…

    Skills

  • From clay to AI: Autodesk’s Student Design Competition winners — Team Coventry — embody the best of automotive design education

    When Coventry University’s Automotive and Transport Design students won Autodesk’s Power of Brand competition, the result stood out for reasons that went beyond a polished final image. Judged on narrative clarity, modeling quality, and brand interpretation, the Coventry team’s concept drawings and renderings demonstrated something deeper: a disciplined design process grounded in intent, craft, and…

    STORIES & INSPIRATION

  • Physics AI for collaboration: Autodesk NavPack 2026

    We’re excited to announce that NavPack 2026 is now available as a fully integrated Autodesk offering across all global channels. Our latest product solution for AI accelerated Design and Engineering, NavPack leverages Physics AI to enable cross functional teams, such as designers and engineers, to effectively collaborate and make better informed decisions faster. Its ability…

    PRODUCT NEWS

  • Left-shifting in automotive design: How real-time insight is reshaping creative workflows

    After introducing NavPack Design and exploring how its predictive and generative AI models are trained, we hit a relevant question: what does this actually change in day-to-day automotive design? The answer comes down to a shift that’s gaining momentum across the industry: AI-driven physics-based insights becoming more accessible to designers, not just simulation experts. As…

    AI

  • AIF 2025: How NavPack Brings Engineering Intelligence into Alias & the design studio

    Presentation 1: AI-accelerated Design & Engineering — Matthias Bauer At AIF 2025, the Autodesk NavPack team presented a clear message: AI is rapidly reshaping the relationship between design and engineering. Across “AI-accelerated Design and Engineering” and “Deep Dive: How to leverage simulation data for AI-accelerated design and engineering,” Matthias Bauer and Jakob Lohse demonstrated not…

    AI

  • Celebrating the people behind design: 2025 Car Design News People Awards

    While we love seeing the final shape of beautiful cars on the road, we don’t always recognize that every great car starts with ideas, talent, and people. That’s where  Car Design News People Awards (CDN People Awards) come in, shining a spotlight on the individuals and teams responsible for the creativity, craftsmanship, and innovation behind…

    INDUSTRY NEWS