One thing we know for sure is that mobility in the year 2050 would be vastly different than what we have right now; in fact, we are currently witnessing the beginning of that change, with electric cars and self-driving functionality slowly taking over the automobile industry. It’s not difficult to predict that cars with internal combustion engines will be a rarity three decades in the future. However, how different would the whole automotive experience be thirty years down the line is hard to guess. British luxury car manufacturer asked the design students from the Royal College of Art’s Intelligent Mobility programme to envisage the future of mobility, or rather British luxury automotive experience.
“Bentley has always been at the forefront of automotive luxury, and with this collaboration, we asked millennial students for their vision of the future,” said Bentley’s Design Director Stefan Sielaff, an alumnus of the RCA’s renowned Automotive Design program. “We wanted ideas and concepts that could potentially lead us in new and interesting directions, using the perspective of these digital natives – from all over the world – to see things differently. These second-year students are the ones who will be designing the cars of the future – the taste makers in training, if you will. That’s why the results of the challenge are so exciting.”
24 designs were submitted by the design students that were judged by RCA lectures and members of Bentley’s design team to pick top four. The radical ideas that were chosen as compelling look into the future are: “Luxury Soundscapes” by Irene Chiu, “Material Humanity” by Kate NamGoong, “Stratospheric Grand Touring” by Jack Watson, and “Elegant Autonomy” by Enuji Choi. They include visons of grand-tourers with high-tech noise cancelling, ultra-rare V8 powered luxury car in the world of electric cars and even something that doesn’t even have wheels. Dr. Chris Thorpe, Senior Tutor in Intelligent Mobility at the RCA, commented: “How do you make tomorrow’s personal journey an emotional experience, as evolving culture, disruptive technology and personal desires change tomorrow’s car? Our students tackled that question when Bentley asked them to look at automotive luxury over the next 30 years.”
