Davide Bonazzi

What if a driverless car could walk your dog, deliver noodles to your doorstep, or go to the shop to buy you a pint of milk? More importantly, could a visually impaired person trust an autonomous vehicle to take them safely from A to B?



These are just some of the possibilities and problems being considered by Rama Gheerawo; director at The Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design, part of the Royal College of Art. His job is to design technology that is adaptable and suitable for all members of society. That's why he's also considering a future where you could call up a driverless booth to act as a meeting booth or escape space, or order an autonomous toilet just like you would a taxi. "We use design to improve people lives, address social challenges and technological change," Gheerawo says.



Gheerawo is working on a £8 million Transport Research Laboratory led project called GATEway (Greenwich Automated Transport Environment). The project is trialling a series of different automated vehicles, including driverless shuttles and automated urban deliveries, in Greenwich, London, in order to gauge public reaction. "We are looking at the hope, fears and acceptance around driverless cars," Gheerawo says. He is looking at how the design of the car could help improve public acceptance of them. "We spoke to visually impaired people as part of this. I get tweeted by one visually impaired man who says 'I cannot wait to be a driver'."



It's important to think about how it will resonate with real people when you are designing things, says Gheerawo. "Drivers and cyclists make eye contact - driverless cars can't do that," he says. "That's why the nose of ours is a little like the nose of a dog to indicate where it is turning." Some of their ideas are playful and some are serious, says Gheerawo, who is also working on redesigning the London taxi, an app for people who suffer from paranoia and building more productive workplaces. In the future, Gheerawo and his team will be using design to address ageing and applying design in different global contexts. As part of this, they will look at how artificial intelligence can support people with dementia or autism, how mixed reality might support the low vision community and how virtual reality could improve health and rehabilitation.



The Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design have completed over 250 projects with 160 partner organisations, including Samsung, Panasonic, Sony and Blackberry. The Royal College of Art also trains future designers. Some of these graduates opened startups; including the Great British Public Toilet map. "We realised that instead of redesigning public toilets we had to actually tell people where they were,” Gheerawo says.

With such experience under his belt, Gheerawo has some tips for successful design. "Getting the public to understand that design is about more than aesthetics is difficult," Gheerawo says. "It is key to innovation, and the trick is to talk to people. Understanding their behaviours, needs, perspectives and aspirations in the present can help you predict and design a more appropriate future." It's as simple as that.