for the road ahead

Technology can give us the less is more design factor, take for example the ipod, its simple clean lightweight and user friendly. In the car industry we are not quite there yet. To me, working with the environmental aspects on the interior is not just about the materials.

This is the New S80 interior and I am really proud of the simple Scandinavian design, however we all make consumer choices, so if we look at the interior design of cars , we also have to consider what features we really need…or to put it like this…what could you live without?

Ok this maybe painful but lets take a look at some of the items maybe can be seen as luxury's in today’s automotive world. Can we for example live without…
Cup holders? Well there are 8 in this car and we always get requests for more…
Airbags ... in the steering wheel? In the seats? Side protection. In the roof rails? Air bags in the passenger instrument panel? Well the information from Nicklas suggests we may not need these in the future anyway.

So we can get rid of the Seat belts. Air conditioning... well I suppose you could turn it off which is more environmentally friendly but what should we takeaway, to save weight, to preserve energy consumption?

• Deco
• Transmition
• CD player
• RTI
• HMI….. Human Machine Iterface
• Speedo and rev counter
• Indicators, well I suppose some people wouldn’t notice
• Luggage area
• Storage
• Carpet and sound insulation
• Electric seats
• Heated seats
• Seat foam
• Children booster cushions
• Pillars
• Windows
• Arm rests ….. wow it looks like a race car!
• Doors
• Head restraints
• Leather
• Instrument pannel
• Steering Wheel

Cool, ….. Now we start with a clean sheet of paper

A car interior is our second home and Sweeds are
absolute genious in making things ……. simple, clean, spacious, Scandinavian, fresh, a place you want to be.

If I think of the Volvo interior of the future.
I think of chaise longue.
I want an air system I can't see.
Walls and surfaces that blend into one like a photo studio.
Calm like simplicity, functionality that I can use without mechanical interaction like the ipod touch.
I want superb visibility with no pillars maybe I want a transparent dome.

I want a safe place to be where I can enjoy simple luxury.
But also want an interior that saves weight, material and costs less to build in both environmental damage and dollars and cents.

I see a vision of simplicity and cleanliness, but to make the change we may possibly have to change our values and perceptions, our demands an acceptance. However if we can still make design exciting then I believe there are answers to the environmental questions.

But maybe we should still have cup holders...

Stefan:
Yeah, maybe it’s not the cup holders that will create a better world. But they are an example of the urge to approach this issue from new, fresh angles. The environmental challenge we have in front of us is enormous, but it is the big challenges that get us designers going, right? It's an opportunity to move into a new design era for cars. We don’t have the answers of what the cars for the future will look like yet, but what we do know is that they will look, feel and behave differently from today.