Future London Taxi | Concept Car
The Future Londo Taxi was a collaberative project between the Royal College of Art Vehicle Design programme, the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design, Studio Hexagon and vehicle company Karsan which aimed to produce a purpose-built London Black Taxi. The project sought to satisfy the requirements for both low emissions and the regulations associated with the London taxi whilst also meeting the aspirations of drivers and passengers of all ages and abilities.
My Role | Lead Researcher & Product Manager
For a period of four months I joined an existing team of three designers at the Helen Hamlyn Centre of Design to help impliment research and development for the concept car. During that period we interviewed multiple taxi drivers using immersive ethonography and taxi cab audits. We also built a stationary model of the car interior and asked a cross section of taxi users with diverse needs and abilities to dicuss their requirments for the car interior. Feedback was fed into the itterative design process resulting in improved features such as glass roofs for tourists, improved ergonomics for Taxi drivers who complained of ocupational back pain, improved access for wheelchair users and signaling for cyclists acutely affected by rapid taxi manoeuvres on thin London streets.
Product Efficacy | Repeat Funding
Although the project went into a second phase of funding the car was never moved into prototyping and production. A competing design from the existing manufacturer of the London Black Taxi , LEVC (Geely) was selected for deployment.