This is all good in theory, and some will rise to this occasion more than others, but the message that the panel was trying to hammer home was the role of being responsible as a designer. This doesn’t mean to focus on matters of sustainability — though that’s honorable in its own right — what they really mean is being responsible and accountable to the craft.
Lazy, imitative design is simple and satisfying. If you’re inspired by wonderful things already in production and imitate that in your work you’ve shown that your comfort level of risk is more prone to being accepted rather than being exceptional. Good design does not emerge from thin air. It takes trial and error and if at the end of the day we accept simplified methods and practices of design as tickets to acceptance then, in Mr. Bangle’s words, “What are we doing here?”
A somewhat fearful hush fell over the audience as the discussion then moved on to the subject of autonomous vehicles and how human behavior / interaction with these machines will shape the forefront of design. These subjects — behavior and interaction — are two key points when it comes to introducing autonomy to the masses.
While, in theory, humans and conceptual theorists believe you’ll have more time to interact with the kiddos, the reality is that you’ll probably end up projecting Candy Crush on the infotainment screens during your journey. So the question posed by the panel was this: how can you make a hands-off driving experience engaging and rewarding? “No one hops out of an elevator with an accomplished look on their face and brags to those waiting, ‘Did you see that? That was my elevator!’”, noted Chris Bangle, emphasizing the point.
One aspect of the conversation brought an awkward silence to the crowd: Bangle dropped a Stone Cold Steve Austin smack down on the relevance of the car as we know it. “The one thing we didn’t foresee, and this is the scariest of all, is that there would come a day where we are confronting the lack of relevancy at all of cars. That people just wouldn’t care. And THAT, nobody predicted.”
The panel did open up to a Q&A session towards the end and Afshin Behina, founder of Petrolicious, asked: “Do you think autonomous driving will always remain an option and not forced upon us? What are you doing to address the needs of the driving enthusiast?”
Chris Bangle had this to say: “Driving enthusiasts, I think, they are always going to be there. Just like horse enthusiasts are there. And there are probably going to be places for them to enjoy their enthusiasm, just like the horse guys. Where that’s going to be in Main Street USA… question market on that.”
Bearing in mind that mobility has been around since the dawn of man, technology has helped move people in mass for generations since the invention of the wheel. Now this is where Yoda Bangle dives deep.
“You’ve always had independent mobility, it’s called your feet. What [the automobile] did was, for the first time it gave people the possibility to set their own pace. It allowed you to pull away from the pack. To do it your way. Not just where you wanted to go but to do it at your speed. With the plane you arrive at the same time, with the train you arrive at the same time. Every law that came since [the automobile’s] introduction became about restricting that right.
“Now you are going to fill a world with machines that think they have to do it the right way. The space for the driving enthusiast to do it his way is becoming narrower and narrower and narrower. They are always going to be there but the space is going to get awful tight.”
Inspired?
