In the XXI century, artificial intelligence has been incorporated more and more into society, hence, changing people’s daily life and professions. In this article, how artificial intelligence is modifying the job of designers, more specifically car designers will be explored. To discover more about this topic, the EAC Press team made an interview with the car designer Felipe Montoya Bueloni who works as a car designer in Volkswagen Germany for more than 10 years. In the interview, Felipe Montoya discussed how artificial intelligence is used in the design of cars, his predictions about the future of artificial intelligence in his profession, and how artificial intelligence is being used in cars.
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Even though Felipe Montoya does not use artificial intelligence to create the designs of the structure of the cars, in the department of design, some software are used in photographs during the process of the visualization of the car digitally. He thinks that the process of creating the structure of a car is so long and complex (involving more than one area) that it will still take some time for AIs to replace car designers. According to Felipe, when this happens, other professions will also be replaced by AIs. In a more recent future, he presented the idea that AIs will be a catalyst for human abilities. For instance, he thinks it would be nice if in the car industry, there could be software that worked together with him to create the aesthetic of cars. A software which, based on some information and drawings, could create more ideas. Still, he mentioned how humans always found a way to make themselves relevant, for example after the Industrial Revolution and robotization humans found new jobs.
About artificial intelligence used in cars, Felipe explained that there are different levels of autonomy. Cars today have sensors and cameras that work together for the car to have an ‘opinion,’ of when to accelerate when to stop. In this sense, Felipe explained how an autonomous car will need to make decisions in traffic, and for this have an opinion. To make those decisions, the car will need to learn from its experiences while driving, since the traffic laws are different in each country. Still, he presented some questions. If people will feel safe in a car 100% autonomous. If an accident happens with an autonomous car, who is guilty? The owner of the car or the company which fabricated the car? How far are the companies which make cars willing to take risks?
In conclusion, Felipe Montoya opens discussions about the progress of artificial intelligence and its use in cars:
When did you first have contact with design and how has it changed?
Felipe: We have always had contact with design since we used a product when we were children. The point is when we notice the design, we begin to perceive it. The quality of a product, of a graph of whatever it is, in this sense. I think this occurred to me when I began to do design classes when I was a child, about 7 years old. There, even though it was not a product, there was this point of a sharpening of the aesthetics that are really relevant for the design, it can be graphic, of products. In the future, I began to do civil engineering before doing design. In the end, architecture and engineering are also part of the development of a product. In the case of civil engineering the product would be a house and the design is also part of it. When I was doing engineering next to the university, in Unicamp, there was the University of Design of Products, and then I visited the university and considered that the design university would be the best fit for me. I like to draw, cars and all. So I dedicated myself to changing my course to design. We have the subjects. The part that I most like is the design of products, of physical objects, the part that we call shape, that is the shape of a physical product. In the university I had a graphic design, interface design, where I began to understand better what design is and give significance to shape. I think everyone has contact with design when we are born, for example when we use a pacifier, there you have contact with design even though you do not have the perception of it.
The design of products advances according to how technology advances. If you get a car from 20 years ago, the car still has the same function to take you from point A to point B. A car from 20 years ago does the same as a modern car. But now the security, the comfort, the access you have (the cars are now connected to the internet). It is difficult to say how the design changed. For example, a chair is a chair for thousands of years. The material and function are the same. Probably the fabrication process changed a lot. On one side you have things that changed a lot (mainly with the internet) and others that did not change a lot. Today, in design we have UX (user experience), so, what is your experience with the product, and how you can resignify a product. I will give a concrete example, the design department, in Volkswagen when I arrived in the company (15 years ago), had 5 designers in the team of UX. Today the team has 30 people, maybe more, not only for UX but also for interface (for example, 15 years ago the car radio only played a CD or a pen drive, today most modern cars have a kind of iPad). All this new interface demands new professionals that did not exist, so, I think digitalization opened the field. In contrast, a chair continues to be a chair.
Do you use artificial intelligence in your daily work?
Felipe: So, until now no. In my department, we do the design of the outside part of the car, the shape of the car. There is a department in the design that is of visualization, they elaborate the images, and photos, from the prototypes we developed. In this department I see them use some software to help them. In my daily work, I do not use it. I hear people talking about AI, mainly the younger designers. Something that is happening is that today the assemblers are trying to make an autonomous car that one day people do not have to drive. The car would have many sensors, computers, cameras, that would make the car, based on programmation, drive without a person guiding it. And this is called deep machine learning when the machine can learn from its experiences. As the machine processes, it will learn. In traffic, it is still very difficult because in each country the driving rules are different. I know that artificial intelligence in the autonomous car will be something fundamental. In the design, of the shape, I think there is a long way before we use artificial intelligence in the design of cars. One thing is to have aesthetic ideas of something, another is to make it in a functional way. For example, when we are making a car there is a limit of how high the car hood can be. It cannot be too tall because of the vision of the driver, but it cannot be too small because of laws regarding the protection of pedestrians (in case of a car accident, when the person falls on top of the car hood, the car hood is made in a way the structure deforms and absorbs the impact so the pedestrian is not hurt a lot). For all these compromises the designers have to search with the engineers, it is very complex that there are many alternatives that determine the shape of the car, not only the aesthetic. What we hear is that artificial intelligence is advancing, but I don’t use it and don’t see myself using it in a short range of time. Maybe in a medium range of time, something happens.
What do you think will be the future, the advantages and disadvantages, of artificial intelligence?
Felipe: This is a difficult question because of what artificial intelligence will be able to provide for us, and how far it will advance. Because it is still unknown, on one side we read things that say that our days are ending, but I do not think this is specific to the field of design. I think at first what will happen is that artificial intelligence will enable us to do our jobs faster. For example, if I have an app in which I can give some relevant information, let’s say only aesthetics; the car should be lower, wider, with sports lines. And then I give some data and some sketches and then the app will be able to understand my sketches and generate more ideas. Nice! Maybe I created 3 or 4 ideas and with the software I can have 10, 15, 20 in a shorter time interval. In this sense, I think it can be very nice, and I hope it is like this in the beginning. The development of a car is usually 1 year and a half, so, I think software will not be able to do this, for now, from day to night. I think in the beginning it will be a catalyst for our own abilities.
How do you think artificial intelligence is impacting and changing the profession of designers? Do you think one day AI will replace designers?
Felipe: I think the moment that artificial intelligence replaces designers, it will replace many professions. The field of design is really vast. One thing is to do a logo, it is relatively simple. And maybe you can already create one with software. But, in other fields of design, for example in the automotive industry or in the development of complex products, or in the graphic area, I think it will still take time. Today it is difficult to doubt that something can be done. Maybe in the future, yes, artificial intelligence will replace designers. But I think this will not only happen to designers, this will also happen to other professions. If you think about the Industrial Revolution after the robotization of industries occurred, there was a fear that robots would take the labor, but humans always made themselves relevant in some way. So, I think for some time this will happen. Maybe the way we work will change, but I think it will be difficult in a short time.
How is artificial intelligence present in design nowadays? Can you give some examples?
Felipe: For example, in our department, some people use artificial intelligence for photography and lights of photographs, the software can suggest some things and it is nice because you improve based on that. For my work specifically, we do not use artificial intelligence.
How is artificial intelligence being implemented in cars?
Felipe: I think artificial intelligence will mainly help with autonomous cars. The capacity of a car to learn with experience because it is really hard to predict all the variables in traffic in which most cars will be still driven by people. So the first 100% autonomous cars will need to, at least what I notice, learn with experience. I think that artificial intelligence more than for the aesthetic, for the functionality of a car will be important. Imagine, the cars will ‘talk’ with one another. Imagine a moment, like a plane today (a plane today has a sensor that warns that another plane is close). I think for cars artificial intelligence will be important to help cars to be autonomous.
What do you think about this statement by Mickey McManus (leader of the project of the car Hack Rod, the first AI-designed car) “All these trillions of computers, are bored? They’ve got sensors….they’re starting to form their own opinions. [And] what’s in self-driving cars today are in your shoes tomorrow”?
Felipe: How far will the engineers give cars the capacity to generate their own opinions? I think it will be related to its function, driving in the traffic from point A to point B safely. In this sense I think the car will need to have many opinions, the cars will need to process what it is ”seeing” with its sensors, like in the phrase from Mickey. The sensor, the cameras, all these resources have radars, all this working together will make the car have an opinion like I will stop, I will accelerate. The car will evaluate and communicate with other cars, and maybe in the future, the car will make decisions. In this sense, I think yes, the car will need to have opinions and make decisions based on the inputs it is receiving. And there will be a moment, the car will be driving and a child will pass in front of it, the camera will detect and the car will stop. But this is not simple, and there are also ethical points. For example, I have an enterprise that manufactures autonomous cars. I guarantee that the cars are autonomous and that there is no need to drive. Then the car runs over someone. Who is guilty? The enterprise, the owner of the car? How will this work? We still do not know how this will work. And in this sense, a car will need to have opinions.
There is any car that is already 100% autonomous?
Felipe: There are levels of autonomy. The levels go until number 5 which is 100% autonomous. In the cars, all the assemblers have access to the sensors, of those technologies, because the sensors are developed by other enterprises. Basically is the same sensor for all assemblers. Some companies prefer to create their own software and make the sensors communicate between them. For example, in my car, if you take your hand away from the steering wheel, the car continues in the line. But there is a point where the car asks the driver to hold the steering wheel. Today, the assemblers cannot guarantee 100% autonomy of the car. Tesla offers a car number 3 or 4 of autonomy, but they take on risks. You may already have seen that there were accidents. It is a business, it depends how far you want to take risks. A car 100% autonomous does not exist, but is close to happening.
Sources:
https://www.fastcompany.com/3054028/inside-the-hack-rod-the-worlds-first-ai-designed-car
Featured image generated by the Artificial Intelligence Midjourney with the prompt “otally computerized car, afro-futurism, Yoshitaka Amano style”
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