SIAM hosts conclave on future of shared mobility

Hyderabad Automotive industry body, The Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) on Friday virtually organised 16th Styling and Design along with 14th Automotive Design Challenge (ADC), themed on "Reimagining mobility for the new normal". The conclave focused on how the future of shared mobility will be for the Gen-Glass and how the passenger experience will evolve against various transformations happening in the auto sector.

Rajesh Menon, Director General, SIAM, said: "The auto sector is currently undergoing transformation on various fronts like fuel efficiency, emissions, and safety. There has been a move towards electric, autonomous, and connected vehicles. This presents all stakeholders with an opportunity to look at new models of mobility, as we will increasingly see a major transformational change happening in the coming years."

Malo Le Masson, Chairman, SIAM Styling and Design group & Head strategy, Hero MotoCorp, said, "The pandemic has challenged us as a whole and few of implications have been carry forwarded. Fundamentally, the shared mobility has the power to make us all independent as it is more efficient, smarter and sustainable way to move. The challenge today is to think about moving smaller cluster of people in a smarter way."

David Carvalho, MD, Link2Concept, said "Artificial Intelligence driven mobility is managing an extra level of complexity than that by manual processes".

Aurelien Doisy, Head of European Design, Tata Motors, shed light on the design thinking process behind the new TATA Sierra, with a focus to drive the right ethics, values, modernity, authenticity and social aspects to recreate the iconic version of the SUV. He presented the theme of 'TATA Design' to showcase the different design languages that have taken place over the years inside TATA.

Adrian Sellers, Head, custom motorcycle design program, Royal Enfield, said: "Gen-Glass is driven towards a strong sense of identity and is well informed. To tap onto new audiences, Auto Manufacturers should maximise their USPs and designers must build improved UX."

Amin Thakker, Chief Designer, Transportation Design and Engineering and HMI, Tata Elxsi, presented on clean smart flexible seamless mobility for Gen-Glass. Different scenarios for shared mobility were shown. Light was thrown on how the new EV design trend is moving towards meeting functionality, in terms of form and design. He advised automotive designers to focus on smart interiors for the next-gen.