Working with GM, my team of designers and engineers was tasked with imagining a seating system for passengers in an autonomous vehicle.  

After a few weeks of research, we determined that early autonomous vehicles would likely appear in ridesharing platforms like Lyft and Uber first.  We continued to explore the future landscape to best suit as many potential users as possible.

Ultimately we set out to design multiple ridesharing environments to suit different needs for different users at different times of day.  The three we tackled in our time frame: Commute, Relax, and Social.  Using logistical data within the ridesharing platform, the fleet of cars would be stocked based on trends in user requests for each vehicle type.

The Commute Setting was designed with efficiency in mind, allowing commuters to utilize their commute, which on average can be around 30 minutes in major cities, to get some extra work done, catch up on email, personal interests, etc.

The centerpiece of this design was the adjustable lap table that is sturdy enough to support a laptop, but still offers an integrated interface for users.

For the Commute Setting, we chose to go a bit more in depth and study the forces that the swiveling chairs may undergo in a crash test.

The Relax Setting was intended to be a highly luxurious ride reminiscent of an Air Emirates flight, of course, at a premium cost.  This setting was designed complete with seats with 8 points of articulation, adjustable partition, refreshment carrier, lap table, OLED display, luxurious leather, and fine wood grain.

The Social Setting was inspired by a lounge environment that you might find at a high end club.  Along with the massive seating area, this environment features two refreshment coolers, bluetooth connection for music and entertainment and a 40" display.

All these features were designed to be controlled via an app we designed.