VW Rework Design Centre for Autonomous Driving

Volkswagen Group are restructuring one of their most important design centres to prepare for the rapid move toward autonomous vehicles. The automaker want designers at their massive facility in Potsdam, Germany, to focus on improving the in-car user experience and enhancing the HMI in future vehicles.
Since opening more than a decade ago, the Potsdam studio has been responsible for generating ideas that have found their way into numerous production models for VW Group’s brands. Now Potsdam’s mission has changed, and VW Group design chief Michael Mauer has taken over the facility from VW brand design chief Klaus Bischoff.

VW are investing in the development of a Digital UX (user experience) Design team in Potsdam under the leadership of Ulrike Müller, a longtime VW Group designer who has worked across many facets within the organization. Müller will report to Johann Jungwirth, head of the group’s recently established digitalisation strategy department, who has a direct line to VW Group CEO Matthias Müller.

Peter Wouda, who is director of design at the newly created Volkswagen Future Centre Europe sees a key advantage gained by making the move. “Now designers are involved in the creation of this technology from day one,” he said. Shifting the studio’s focus away from production proposals will give designers more time to explore solutions and test usability outcomes for new UX and HMI concepts for all VW’s brands, and enable a cognitive approach to future product.

“The big issue is autonomous driving: How will we use our time? There are lots of opportunities to shape the brands and provide clear differences in Audi and Bentley