How to do car design remotely – Geely
The Coronavirus pandemic has changed the way in which millions of people around the world are living and working. The automotive industry is scrambling to adapt, and while some areas such as manufacturing have come to a halt, the latest digital tools are allowing car designers to keep going.
In this series of short articles, Car Design News talks to the world’s leading designers about virtual car design, the challenges and the possibilities.
Guy Burgoyne, vice president of design at Geely China, outlines the measures taken by the company during lockdown, and describes the current situation in China with the re-opening of the Geely design studios.
How to do car design remotely – Hyundai and Genesis
The Chinese New Year was extended back in January, so our studio here in Shanghai was closed for a longer period than it would have normally been. We made sure everyone could work from home during the quarantine periods that were in place across China.
Today, all our studios in China are open, and have been since early March. Obviously the situation in other areas of the world is different, and we have design teams in Kuala Lumpur, the UK, Sweden, Barcelona and California. Everyone in Geely design is now working in some format, whether from home or in a studio. If they can’t execute certain things then they are concentrating on other tasks that they can do, such as admin to make sure we are prepared for the rest of the year.
When our studio in Shanghai re-opened we set up a full clean twice a day and we did temperature checks of everyone coming in. We also minimised how many people needed to be in, so those who could easily work from home did.
There was already a fairly large space between desks in the studio, so that wasn’t an issue. We tried to minimise gatherings, and actually had people on video conferences to colleagues that were working in the same building. Personally, I have always liked to see the person I am communicating with, and believe that a huge part of understanding people is to see their facial expressions. I have quite gymnastic eyebrows which can say a lot.
We have been carrying out virtual design reviews for years now, so we’re used to seeing our colleagues as avatars in a virtual space, hearing their voices in real-time and pointing to features on multiple virtual themes. It is a great tool, and although it isn’t replacing physical modeling, it allows us to have more regular updates and increase general confidence during the design process.
In some ways, this way of working is very effective and perhaps even makes some jobs easier. People are able to concentrate for longer periods without being disturbed. However, one of the important things in design is to get people together and discuss work, provide comments and voice ideas. Also, we’re no longer having that natural and accidental interaction with each other in the corridor or at the coffee machine, which can often be extremely productive and lead to some brilliant ideas. Every bit of communication is now planned. So there are pros and cons.
We had a plan last year to expand our virtual reality stations into more of the parts of the company, not just design studios, but where top leadership are based. These plans have been accelerated. We’ve also now got rules around large online meetings, and have a system in place to ensure people are being heard. It’s a bit like holding the soft ball and having to throw it to the person that wants to speak.
We hope our people feel that we care. It is the simplest human thing to keep them happy. I think that creatives generally don’t need much in the way of extra motivation – they all know it is a great job to have, and great opportunity to define the mobility world.
If I were to give advice to studios that are currently in lockdown in Europe and the US it would be this: be tolerant, everyone has a different situation. Don’t judge others that have been in quarantine, as you may not be seeing all that they did. Be patient.
Working from home is possible, even if you are surrounded by children having online lessons and creatures that want to be walked. I still feel that creativity generally works best when people can come together and constructively comment, but there is no doubt that some tasks are easier without distraction. Certain people crave human interaction, and others simply don’t.
In terms of Coronavirus influencing the future of car design, I have heard some talk about people wanting more personal space, which could increase the desirability of private cars and cause concern over public transport. There will likely be an impact on carsharing and hailing. The Ubers, Didis and Cao Caos of the world will need to ensure their passengers are feeling extra safe.
Then when we get into the details, there are things that we can do such as using antibacterial surfaces. We recently launched a version of our Icon Car that has a new filtration system. It is designed to kill bacteria and inhibits allergens, dust and viral carriers.
