Summer Collaboration

Launch of future mobility projects at the DLX lab through a two-month summer collaboration between the Royal College of Art/Imperial students, U-Tokyo students and IIS Mobility Labs.

In collaboration with Mobility Labs, students Jenny Hu, Tobias Kappeler, Takaharu Suzuki, Daichi Okazaki, and Kent Matsui from the Royal College of Art, Imperial College London, and IIS Tokyo worked together over the summer of 2020 to investigate the future of autonomous vehicles with the DLX Design Lab.

Throughout the collaboration, they explored a variety of themes within human-machine interaction for mobility. Their work ranged from steering control and manoeuvering to communication pathways between drivers, passengers, and the vehicle, and emergency take-over for exceptional scenarios and near-accidents.

Together, they worked across four time zones and countries, due to COVID-19 restrictions, to deliver the starting point of long-term research projects on the future of mobility at DLX. The goal was to understand the exceptional needs associated with the future of autonomous vehicles and how we, as humans, will navigate the challenges and opportunities of driving, working, and relaxing in our future cars.

Jenny Hu & Tobias Kappeler

Jenny is a London-based interaction designer with a background in industrial design and HCI, exploring novel, artefact-based human-computer interaction between design, craft, and machines.

Tobias has a background in metalwork and process design and is interested in immersive technologies to create social innovations. He enjoys developing novel interactions between people and products and working across disciplines.