Volkswagen Loop
Keywords:Experiences, Interactive & User PersonaChannels: Digital, Interactive, & Motion Teammates:
Luke Ehrle & Ramya Manoharan
Volkswagen Loop was a sponsored project done in collaboration with transportation design students Luke Ehrle (exterior) and Ramya Manoharan (interior). We were given the task of designing a car for the persona of a low-income college student who uses a fleet car for travel. As a team, we decided to base our project on Ann Arbor, Michigan, with the challenges of severe traffic, limited parking available, social isolation, and lack of communal spaces. The cars would be partially autonomous, being able to be hailed through the app, coming to you, and then leaving after dropping you off so as to not need parking all of the time. To solve some of these issues, I thought about how tech experiences could help, coming up with an app with a Shared Interest Quiz (SIQ), a safety feature that uses lighting, and the idea of a Digital Community Whiteboard (DCW). The DCW is where one can leave doodles and messages and would be integrated within the app and car itself, connecting other users by being collaborative. The SIQ, which would live with the app, is a quiz that, after completion, would match one with other users with similar interests when sharing rides or a hub. As a team, to solve the issues of community spaces, we came up with the idea of using the charging locations as a community space. Creating three different focused themed hubs: The Dome (fitness), The Graden (relaxation), and The Lab (tech and the repair zone).