Work at Volkswagen Group Future Center Europe

From 2021 to 2024 I've been a UX Design Technologist at Future Center Europe, a unique Volkswagen Group facility where the mobility of tomorrow is explored. At Future Center Europe, designers, engineers, and researchers from many different countries rethink the future of mobility to inspire the whole Volkswagen Group (Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche, Lamborghini, Bugatti, SEAT, Cupra, Škoda, Bentley, Ducati, Scout Motors, and Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles). Future Center Europe is one of three studios worldwide of this kind, with the other two located in California and Beijing, China.

At Future Center Europe I worked on various projects and topics, such as autonomous driving, shared mobility, generative AI, and circularity & sustainability. My role involved conceptualizing and designing digital user interfaces, developing novel interaction mechanics, and creating prototypes to test and validate these concepts.

As of right now I can only show publicly a small fraction of my work due to tight non-disclosure agreements. Watch this space, more may be coming later ☺️.

Years: 2021 - 2024

Keywords: Autonomous Driving, Generative AI, Circularity & Sustainability, Shared Mobility, Mobility-as-a-Service, UX / UI Design, Software-Prototyping, Creative Coding, Sound Design

Project: A Digital User Interface for the Gen.Urban

The Gen.Urban is a fully autonomous mobility-as-a-service vehicle designed without traditional controls such as pedals or a steering wheel.

Creating the Gen.Urban infotainment UI

In close collaboration with Volkswagen Group Innovation, my team and I conceptualized, designed, and software & hardware prototyped the digital user interface for the Gen.Urban. With them, I conceptualized the structural makeup of the in-car UI and mobile companion app, developed novel interaction mechanics tailored to the unique autonomous driving experience of the Gen.Urban, and defined its visual design language and design system.

Here is a very limited view of the infotainment system we created for the Gen.Urban. Instead of a steering wheel and pedals, the Gen.Urban features a large theater screen with an extensive in-car infotainment system that seemlessly integrates with personal devices brought along the trip:

Project: Digital In-Car Experiences for the SEM

The SEM research concept explores the future of autonomous, premium mobility in urban environments. Designed as a shared vehicle, it is intended to adapt to a variety of use cases, from family outings to business meetings.

In early development phases, I collaborated with my team to design digital in-car experiences that would support and enhance these different scenarios.

Most of our work happened in secrecy, so there's other projects I can't talk about yet.