Goodyear Innovation Challenge Project Brief
Many futuristic high-tech vehicle startups are popping up, completely changing the paradigm of production, ownership, and the way we interact with vehicles. Electrification, connectedness, car sharing, and autonomy intersect to transform mobility and the world as we know it. People are shifting from driver to rider, and the vehicle cabin is morphing from "car" to "room".
The product being sold is no longer just a car, it is now the service of providing Physical movement from point A to point B, while enabling life to happen in between. People used to design their lives around stable things that are not moving - but what if we move towards the opposite, and movement is our only constant? Vehicles are beginning to be seen as a "third space" in addition to the home and office.
The third space is the social center of life; it was once the urban plaza, then the shopping mall, then the shopping mall, and now it can be inside the high-tech cabin of an automobile. It is a connected home away from home where relationships can be built. It is also a connected office away from office where work can be done. This is particularly pertinent as identities, relationships, and businesses are increasingly constructed in online spaces, not tied to any permanent physical space, and perhaps not to physical possessions such as cars, and therefore tires."
The Problem: Design for the Third Space
The task was to design a product that uses the vehicle as a "Third Space", a social hub that exists outside of the home and the workplace. As vehicles become more advanced and driving becomes a passive event they become a realistic possibility for social interaction.
Excerpts from our original pitch.
Approach:
Through research early in our process, we discovered that Goodyear was making large-scale investments in automated vehicle research. They were looking beyond simply supplying tires, they were planning on creating their own vehicles. With that in mind we developed a plan for a multi-level ride share/ownership service using self-driving vehicles created by Goodyear. Our concept centered on a fleet of vehicles on the road, available by signing up for a rideshare service. The plan was crafted using different business plans for every considered user with a thought to the future of driving, younger generations for whom car ownership is not feasible or desired. The fleet would eliminate the the expenses involved with car ownership, and can be customized to the preferences of the rider. Since traveling would become a passive activity, this would become the third space where people could combine the first and second spaces or create an entirely new space.
The user flow, charting the path from event selection to event arrival.
Results:
Our rideshare program would serve as the link between Goodyear's automated fleet of vehicles and the people who use them. People use the app, and the vehicle picks them up and delivers them to their desired destination. The third space is created by variations in user choice and preference. Users would customize the experiences they want to have, they can share rides with likeminded people, people traveling to the same destination, or any other situation where people from different walks of life would connect. User choose ride preferences and the app creates the ride and the experience and ultimately that third space. The third space can be anything, a social environment, a workspace, a meeting place for likeminded people, or a simple, quiet car ride.
Post an activity allowing others to join you
Onboarding
Ride with others attending the same event
Organize a ride to an event with friends
Participate in an activity
Lesson Learned: The Value of Leadership
In the weeks leading up to the event we worked very well together, discussions were had, tasks assigned, and things got done. When it came time to sit and work together things fell apart. It was a group of peers, and no one wanted to step up and provide direction, and as a result we were team of individuals fighting against everyone else for what we thought was best for our concept. Leadership isn't a crown on your head or a get-out-of-jail-free card, it's a new set of responsibilities involving a new set of skills, and it's essential to get a project to where it needs to be. A leader would have corralled our team, kept us focused on the task at hand, meditated conflicts(of which we had many), and coordinated our efforts. A good idea mismanaged can fail just as easily as a bad idea.
The pitch deck for Autonomy, our ride-share app.
