Transcription
[Applause] We're here in Gothenburg in Sweden for Volvo. We're going to explore the 360c concept and another project called Teo. And we're going to talk about the user experience, meet the interior team, have a go even on the VR goggles. Uh, we're going to talk about color, material, sustainability, and then finish with a walk around the exterior models in our showroom here in in Gothenburg.
Now, I remember doing the the presentations over in Italy and we tended to start with a bit of kind of brand history, exterior design, going to clay models. Now, as we move into these concepts, we actually realize that where we need to start with the project is the user experience. And that's a huge part of our design department now. We have Tom here from Head of UX. Tom, tell us about what's so important for Volvo and user experience.
Absolutely. Well, we want to look at the user first. We want to understand what are they doing with our products and services? What are they doing in their lives? And how can we make their lives better, more enjoyable, and more fun? And we take those insights and and use those to create the details of our products and services. And we've explored the 360c concept because it's hard to explore. I mean, we're talking a full autonomous vehicle, level 5, and no driver. Tell us a bit about that project.
Yeah, so the 360c was about autonomous drive over long distances. And so what are what are people going to do? You know, they want to be comfortable, they might work, they might sleep, but they certainly have a lot of time to spend. And and so we looked at things to make their lives easier and bring their lives in into the space so they can work with it. So we gave them a lot of digital surfaces so they can bring their own digital media media in. So maybe they're listening to music, maybe they're watching movies, or maybe they're doing some work.
And we looked at a second concept which was Teo. And that was about a again, a full autonomous vehicle, maybe shorter journeys, single person, five to ten minutes. Yeah. So if you look at that scenario, we were thinking, you know, a smaller vehicle with a with a larger screen. You can just step in and out of it really quickly. Um, and we didn't want people to have to touch a lot of things. So we looked at different interaction methods like voice, eye eye control, and gestures. So you didn't have to touch the spaces that were that were in a public space. But people also wanted to bring their own digital media in. So, you know, giving them a space separate from the busy city so they can do phone calls, watch some digital media, look at things on that large screen that we presented to them. Or if they wanted to take in the surroundings of the city, that screen could present the route or maybe information about the city that may, you know, maybe they were a tourist using it. So those are some of the things that we looked at.
Fantastic. Sounds interesting. Now, I think we should go and have a look now at the actual properties. So I'm going to now take you over to the models and we'll meet the interior team and listen to the stories behind the design of the 360c. Thanks, Tom.
Okay, so let's meet the interior designers behind this project. We have Lisa and Daniel. Welcome, guys. Before we go into the detail, let's maybe at least explain what this property is. It's not our normal design model, is it?
No, exactly. So this is an interior model. And um, it captures the design language and the flavor of the environment that we want to have in our interiors. But it's been modified so that we can sit four people in this book. Um, and use the headsets to give them an experience through the four different interior layouts. So here we have the living room. We can start with. And Daniel's got his headset on, so we're experiencing what Daniel's seeing.
Exactly. We we see what Daniel sees. Um, and Daniel's on his way to work, commuting early in the morning. Maybe Daniel wants to pick up a colleague. How about that, Daniel? Do you have some colleagues that live along the way?
Yeah, so this is really exploring that uh commute to work, early morning. It could be that you pick up, as you say, colleagues or even pooling in a sense. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Um, and here you can also um, have a more private enclosed experience. So this is a linked with our ambience concept. And where you can have a privacy glass and actually block out the world around you. And this is the the band on the inside is really important equally as it is outside of the car. It helps communicate to the the people inside when the car is about to move.
Moving into our second interior. This is the office environment. And this could be a place that you should rent as an office, or you could use it on the move, travelling. So you can see how the phone is placed on the table and it syncs then with the table instantly. And we're able to swipe something up onto the side window. And this is our fourth scene. Um, and I think this one was really the most interesting. And this you could see it as your own private hotel room. It picks you up from the door. And imagine that you have an early morning meeting in Stockholm and you're going to travel through the night. So it's really a chance for you to look around, feel the space. Um, and there's many feature content in here like you can lay out your own personal belongings there in the drawer with your suitcase. And this is really an alternative to short haul air travel. So it's between two cities. And so to relax, you can see the seats have moved to make them feel very, very comfortable. Living the experience. And the film. Now you can watch your favorite film before settling down. And we're going to go back one more time. Are you feeling relaxed? I'm going to fall asleep here. Yeah. And just before you do, maybe we can give you a taste of the Northern Lights. Oh, fantastic. Getting to this point in the experience, I think everybody was so relaxed going through the final settling down stages. We had a few moments, didn't we, where people took the goggles off and then put them back on, going, "Wow, that was so good." Actually, I just wanted to stay in that environment, which was really interesting.
How did that feel, Daniel? Very cool and uh, immersive. So, and I mean, let's uh, let's talk about interior design for Volvo then. I mean, Lisa, what's what's your key message when it comes to creating an environment for Volvo? What's special about Volvo?
Yeah, I think Volvo has so many really good values that we can use in design. We're looking for comfort, comfortable interior, smart solutions, lightweight, also an efficient design, a pure simplicity that is Scandinavian design, and a very rich premium feeling as well, especially in the materials.
And Daniel, I know you have a really good connection to our students. What would be your message to up-and-coming young designers?
Just keeping it progressive. Yeah. I would say, okay, so progressive, thinking about the future, maybe touching their own sustainability. Yeah. Yeah.
That's fantastic. That's a great link actually to go now and for me to talk to the color materials team and talk about Volvo materials and sustainability. Thank you, guys. Really good. Thank you.
So, hi guys. It's uh, color material designers. And we're going to talk about the color material design around the 360c. Linear, you've been heavily involved in this. Do you want to explain the inspiration, the stories behind our color materials for 360c?
So we wanted to create a room where you could feel really relaxed. And we wanted to use natural material for that. So here here you can see the linen. Yes, the white one here, and the wool is the colored ones. So we're influencing from our, yeah, living rooms and furniture design and bringing those influences into into what is actually a room anyway. It's a sleeping car. Yeah. So we wanted to to tie into this Scandinavian feeling in this car. We wanted to make a wood floor that is reminiscent of driftwood. So what you can see on the beaches and shores of Scandinavia, which is basically wood colored by the sun and the ocean. We think that we can split it into two areas. We have recycled materials, for example, recycled plastics, recycled fabric materials. We reproduce materials out of recycled PET bottles. So that's really interesting. And on the other hand, we we would like to use really pure natural materials like linen, mentioned wool, linen, driftwood, woods, and different kind of variants. So I think the forest, it's very important to have this very strong sustainable approach. And ultimately, we'll get to a point where we recycle natural materials, which will be the ultimate sustainability. Yeah, yeah. I think Scandinavian design is very much inspired by nature. This is when you arrive here in Sweden, you see this amazing light, you see this unbelievable nature. It's such an unbelievable great inspiration as well. So I, I like that very much. And I, you can feel that everyone who lives here kind of lives also this sustainability abroad all the time. And I think we, we have a really nice history in Scandinavian design when it comes to reduce things, to keep things calm, to make it really as comfortable as possible for our customers, and to see the customer really as as a strong inspiration as well. I think that's also part of of Scandinavian design.
Thank you very much, guys. Thank you.
So, welcome to the Volvo Design Studio. We're about to go into what we call our showroom, where we do all our big presentations. We're going to meet one of our exterior designers and actually walk outside and have a look at the 360c concept. So, come this way.
Hey, Tjon. Great to see you. Hey, good to see you. So, Tjon, we've got here then. This is our showroom outside in our beautiful viewing area. We have the 360c concept. So you're going to show us around, tell us a bit about the the concept outside. Yeah, tell us about the design, what inspired you, what's the key elements of the 360c?
Yep. Um, that's a good question. I can I can remember from the very first design brief, um, it wasn't to, you know, style an autonomous car, but it was to create a piece of architecture that moves. And that's a very different brief than you usually get when you know, saying doing the next S60 or S90, where it's about premium proportions, drivability, driver centered, um, passenger car. Um, but since this was a fully autonomous vehicle and quite a large vehicle, um, we started with that architecture in mind. Okay. And what that basically led for us to do was push those wheels to the corner, um, to create very little overhang, but also to create maximum interior volume. Yeah. This really is a concept about usability because that's the thing. This concept is no driver. It's got the different interiors that we looked at earlier. Um, and tell us a little bit about this light identity and the 360 band going all around the car.
Yeah, I mean, that line that goes through the car is not just a styling element, but it's actually a communication element. One of the biggest focuses around this vehicle was the UX, or the user experience. From the outside of the vehicle, usually we do that from the inside of the vehicle, but it was really to send a message to those around the vehicle and to communicate the intentions of the car. And and here we've got as well, the this is the what we call the Thor's hammer, then the light identity, and that kind of blends into this 360 band. Yeah, we have our signature lamp, Thor's hammer, and it definitely integrates into that band. And the sequence of lighting really shows how it breathes and lights up. Um, and then it plays itself into the rear as well. This is then where the light identity comes around the back. And and again, this is a very strong Volvo element, this vertical light going into the side. Yep. And the light as well. I mean, this is a really airy cabin with this uh, the light here, but also the glass below. How, explain a little bit about why we did that.
Well, working with the teams together, I mean, that was such a concrete desire to focus around those users in in the car to get that maximum experience, to see the city around. And down below, there's no droppable glass in this vehicle. So that actually opens up a bit of freedom. And it was really an element of architecture with that glass cabin that really plants itself over those lamps, as you see, both of them come down like pillars, sort of broadcast themselves right to the center of the wheels. Right. So that creates this hugging shape, which for us communicates that that band or that that solidity of safety in the vehicle as well.
Fantastic. Okay, so then we've had a good look now at uh, the user experience, the materials, the interior design, now the exterior design. And we've touched on the second concept, which is Teo. I think that gives you a really good insight into to what we're working on in terms of our future vision for Volvo. Of course, we've got lots of projects going on with our near future. And but we thought that would be the most interesting subject for you to to look at and learn and experience. And of course, a chance to see our design studio and more importantly, meet the team behind it. Thank you.
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