“How do you imagine the first True AR™ driven car?” car designer Advait Taware has the answer
At WayRay, we are constantly designing, experimenting, prototyping, and building, and recently we’ve been working on something particularly fascinating — Deep Tech, which is a truly complex and challenging undertaking. We will tell you more about it shortly, but first, here’s an overview of WayRay’s mission and progress.
Since WayRay’s creation, we’ve been developing a unique culture, pushing past the slow-moving incremental advancements of our time, and furthering humanity’s technological progress.
We are creating the world’s first True AR™ technology. Of course, in doing this, we faced countless problems we’ve had to overcome. As you can imagine, creating cutting-edge technologies that do not yet exist is quite the challenge. We have to learn, grow, and push past difficulties; despite our bold ambitions, we are also realistic and know the importance of patience, experimentation, and learning from mistakes.
Think about the first computers, those that were the size of a room but only capable of solving simple math problems, and compare them to the modern smartphone, which can do so much more than that — a massive improvement in 70 years, no doubt. However, when comparing WayRay to today’s technology, we’re not just 70 years ahead — we want to bring 2221 to 2021; we’d like to give you a glimpse into our world, from the continuous R&D to our unique deep-tech technology, and of course, the minds behind it all.
Our recent project has a very ambitious and exciting goal. To understand our goal, however, it is important to understand the challenge we face. WayRay creates Augmented Reality for vehicles. However, many vehicles are still not designed for True AR™ technology yet. That’s because science fiction has distorted the idea of AR in popular culture; as a result, “futuristic” designs often do not account for functionality and user comfort. In other words, attempts at incorporating AR in designs are often unrealistic and uncomfortable. Therefore, while there are interesting and novel designs for future vehicles that factor in AR, they are just novelties — only designed for car shows and never used in reality. We aim to overcome this stigma.
The current project aims to “balance design, functionality, and Augmented Reality application,” as explained by Veronika Udodova, Chief Design Officer at WayRay. We reached out to designers with a brief: to show how AR can work in car design, to reinvent the user experience for driving, and to set a new standard in the industry. The designers then submitted their ideas to help WayRay find a way to address the challenges and make a significant step toward bringing True AR™ technology to transport.
There are three main goals: to show how AR technology could work in a custom-designed self-driving vehicle, reinvent the user experience inside and out, and later, to set a standard for future vehicles. In addition to this, this project is meant to challenge the idea of luxury — the current idea of luxury being full of useless and gratuitous things — and to bring forth new ideas of what luxury should be. We have had numerous great minds submit their ideas for this concept, and we spoke to them to see what they thought about the project, their work approach, and their thoughts on what the future holds regarding AR and car design.
In these interviews, we will hear from a talented group of designers who answered our call to envision a new concept combining novel AR tech with car design. The results were impressive, and we wanted to learn more about their process, their vision, and what they think about the future of automotive. Join us for some truly fascinating insights and inspiring discussions.
We reached out to six designers from all over the world. We asked them a simple yet tricky question: “How do you imagine the first True AR™ driven car?”
The first amazing mind that we’d like to introduce is Advait Taware, the sleek designer responsible for the designs you can see below. He’ll be telling us about his vision and how he sees the future of AR.
Meet Advait
Advait is a designer from the west of India, near a town called Pune. He has a unique touch when it comes to design. Having completed his Master’s degree in transportation design from ISD RUBIKA at the beginning of 2020, he also interned at Mercedes-Benz Research and Development in Pune, India, and Faurecia, France. When designing his concepts, he bases his work on emotions and uses them to convey his vision to the audience. “I am always drawn to color and contrast,” he says. In terms of design, he values transparency as it always conveys a sense of honesty. His interest and method of communication through design made him appreciate WayRay’s philosophy. In his own words, he was “really intrigued by this project as it uses transparency, layering, and projection of different colors to communicate.”
The Future of Cars
Countless hours have been put into figuring out what cars will look like in the future. Advait explains that, when designing these concepts, his main goal was to create memorable traveling experiences with the incorporation of AR into the vehicle. “When we travel, there is often a barrier between us and the environment we’re traveling in. So the vehicle should be capable of making the user experience their surroundings, be it through visuals, sound, or through simple interactions between the user and what they see,” Advait said. So we should expect an overhaul of the relationship between the driver and the environment; driving will no longer feel so separated from the world around us.
Realistic Creativity — Musts for Designing the Future
Our goal at WayRay is to make technologies that are often considered to be in the realm of science fiction into real, tangible things. On the one hand, this leaves much room for unrestrained creativity, but on the other hand, it also requires precise calculations to combine reality with the envisioned ideas.
“For my concept, I wanted there to be a huge viewing space, a glass box on wheels kind of deal, but along with this, I also had to think from a realistic point of view. So there had to be some space to incorporate the wheels, the motors, the chassis, battery bed and similarly other functional and safety elements that would help bring the concept closer to a functioning object,” he added.
At WayRay, we understand the importance of creating appealing and stylish products that are also efficient and effective. Advait combined this beautifully with his designs, stating, “Creating a good blend of opaque and transparent surfaces was the biggest obstacle with this design. Orchestrating a harmony between these two types of surfaces was a challenge. It shouldn’t just be placed aesthetically, but the position should serve a purpose as well.”
What does the future of AR hold?
“I see AR as a huge opportunity to unlock a completely different travel experience. I think that AR has the potential to become the next mode of communication, allowing us to convey our experiences in a much more immersive and understandable way. Visual storytelling is the most impactful way of conveying a thought, and adding AR to the way we travel will be groundbreaking. Imagine being able to share a certain moment in a trip where you felt alive or connected to a place with others in the most descriptive way possible, making them feel as if they traveled with you.”
As Advait says, AR has started to have long-lasting effects on travel. There will be even more changes in the near future — to how it works, how we feel, and how we interact when we drive. Like a true artist, Advait knows how to balance emotion through design, but he also understands the real-world limitations and how to go beyond them. We are incredibly grateful for his efforts, and Advait is a great example of the sort of mind that is perfectly in tune with Deep Tech and WayRay: creative yet practical, thoughtful yet driven. To summarize Advait’s approach to design:
- Using emotion and storytelling in the design process
- Focusing on color and contrast
- Having creativity is essential, as is practicality
- Breaking the barrier between the driver and the world
- Changing the future of transport
Intrigued by what’s coming next? Next, we’ll be speaking with Danilo Makio Saito, a multidisciplinary designer, who has been working on a range of projects in a variety of industries, from cars to products, to digital interactions and mixed reality experiences.
