General Motors has been keen on iterating more will change in the automotive industry over the next five years than it has in the past 50. Michael Simcoe, freshly minted GM Vice President of Global Design, echoed the company’s statement in his latest Q&A with Car and Driver.
C&D buried Simcoe’s session in its latest piece covering 20 tough questions on the state of the automotive industry. Naturally, Simcoe gave insight on design. The latest vice president of global design stated as we continue to segment autonomous vehicles from traditional driving machines, the design will be affected greatly.
For a shared vehicle in an autonomous environment, it might be a different sort of emotion that you’re playing to, but still you have to engage customers. If you think about where we are moving, we’re going to give designers the ability to reinvent the vehicle. In the next five years we’re going to move further than we’ve moved in the last fifty. It’s a huge change, but it’s also an opportunity.
Simcoe also said it’s partially the design team’s job to ensure new features are of value to customers, they are easy to understand and adapt to.
Our job is to make them that way. We are making vehicles safer, we are making them deliver a lot more than some customers require, but we’re also in the process of preparing the vehicle systems and the vehicles themselves for a fast-changing world
But, have no fear, traditionalists. Automotive design will continue to be full of emotion and creativity… Even if the consumer base at large continues to fall in love with the crossover.
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