Artificial intelligence is ubiquitous at this stage in most workplaces, and it’s transformed everything from data analysis up through the artistic industries. Industry was no exception, and carmakers have been no exception, with increasing numbers of firms experimenting with AI-focused design software. Not everybody, however, is content with the tech’s current state, least of all Mercedes-Benz head of design Gorden Wagener.
Wagener recently provided his forthright commentary on the role of AI in car design, critical of available capability and curiously foresightful for the future. Interviewed by MotorTrend, the chief of design was straightforward in his criticism of the inherent limitations of car design software available currently.
“We work with AI now. You get 99% of crap with AI and sheer quantity,” Wagener told ABC News in an earlier interview. “That’s the biggest problem – sorting out the good stuff from the bad. But you get 1% good stuff and we keep learning.”
The Paradox of AI in Car Design, A Mercedes Chief’s Ambivalent Outlook
Mercedes design chief concedes AI can produce exquisite renderings and provide advanced light effect enhancements of sketches, but does not come close to addressing real world car design realities of manufacturability, safety, and evoking the emotive response which defines truly iconic cars.
It is quite some distance from designing a car which looks wonderful on screen, and designing a car manufacturable, safe, and evoking the emotive response which defines truly iconic cars.
Wagener references a burgeoning issue facing the car business: the internet is filled, and filled again, and filled once more, with AI-created car renders. Computer-images-in-abundance have diluted the sense of newness, and it’s getting tougher and harder for carmakers to produce concept cars and display cars that actually draw public attention and news media exposure.
“This saturation reduces the incentive for car makers to create display cars qualitatively differentiating,” he says, describing how the ubiquity of AI-powered content creation ironically had the unintended consequence of negatively impacted creation of something new and exciting.
Despite these current limitations, Wagener delivers an unexpectedly bullish outlook of the future impact of the technology. “AI will revolutionarily transform the way we design. I envision within 10 years’ time probably most of the design will be done by AI and will make designers redundant. My replacement will be a machine and will cost a fraction of my current pay.”
This commentary demonstrates the ambivalent alliance most artistic professionals have toward AI, simultaneously suspicious of its current ability and mindful of its future potential to transform their professions.
Mercedes-Benz, Steering Away from AI, Embracing Human Design for a Distinctive Identity
Rather than relying heavily on AI-generated concepts, Mercedes is taking a different approach to stand out in today’s crowded automotive landscape. Wagener emphasizes giving each model line a distinct personality and clear identity.
The strategy involves positioning the E-Class with a sporting character, maintaining the S-Class’s reputation for stately elegance, ensuring the SL delivers pure performance appeal, and reserving Maybach for ultimate luxury experiences.
Mercedes’ design department, however, keeps churning out traditional projects, including future C- and E-Class successors, a new S-Class, and a long-awaited compact “baby” G-Class. These will be and will continue to be Mercedes’ products of human-focused design processes, at least in the short term.
Recent examples of this strategy include the new GLC EV, which was introduced last month in Munich. Its vehicle features star-shaped LED illumination components and a lit grille in recognition of Mercedes’ heritage – design aspects created through human invention, not generated algorithmically.
In fact, Wagener surprised us by saying the iconic grille was not originally in the plan. It was included after a discussion between himself and Mercedes Chairman and CEO Ola Källenius, taking extra time and resources, but Wagener thinks the human touch was a good value for the cost.
AI and the Future of Car Design, A Mercedes Perspective
The designer’s conclusions belie a larger uncertainty in creative professions so long as AI abilities keep growing. Although present AI software might turn out “99% crap” according to Wagener, the technology is rapidly evolving. His admission that AI might sometime render human designers obsolete hints at even pessimists underestimating the transformative capability of the technology.
Mercedes, at least in the short term, seems dedicated to human-focused design processes and closely observing AI progress. If Wagener’s machine successors’ prophecy holds, time will tell, but his candid analysis offers a valuable perspective on the dominant established car brand’s readiness for this tech revolution. The future of the car industry and AI designing programs will most likely strike a compromise between rising productivity and the intangible human elements which make cars so iconic.
