Polestar 3 – 2024 Automotive Design Award

GOOD DESIGN AUSTRALIA’S AUTOMOTIVE DESIGN AWARD IS A SPECIAL ACCOLADE WITHIN THE AUTOMOTIVE AND TRANSPORT CATEGORY THAT RECOGNISES EXCELLENCE IN AUTOMOTIVE DESIGN AND STYLING.

VEHICLES ENTERED INTO THE AUTOMOTIVE AND TRANSPORT CATEGORY IN THE ANNUAL GOOD DESIGN AWARDS ARE CONSIDERED FOR THE BEST EXTERIOR DESIGN AWARD AND BEST INTERIOR DESIGN AWARD AS PART OF THE JURY PROCESS.

Polestar 3 is an SUV designed for the electric age. Created by Polestar, its design seeks to challenge what drivers expect of an SUV without compromising on space, performance and sustainability. The final product is described by Senior Exterior Designer, Nahum Escobedo, as a ‘celebration of technology’. 

The design process behind Polestar 3 is as intriguing as its exterior. From the use of renewable energy during production through to a transparent supply chain, the SUV seeks to offer a sustainable design roadmap for the entire electric vehicle (EV) industry. 

Even at first glance, Polestar 3 is distinct. A closer look reveals that expectation has been replaced with innovation. The SmartZone is just one of the features that embodies this approach. It replaces the grille with a cluster of cameras, radars and sensors that allow drivers to sense their surroundings with meticulous detail. Other remarkable features include an aerodynamic roofline and frameless door mirrors. 

The vehicle has been recognised with the 2024 Automotive Design Award (Best Exterior Design). We sat down with Escobedo and Polestar’s Head of PR and Communications, Laurissa Mirabelli, to explore the vision at the driver’s seat of this impactful project. 

[Nahum Escobedo (right) and Polestar team members designing Polestar 3 Image: Polestar]

GDA: Can you tell us about how Polestar 3’s technology is reflected in its exterior design?

For example… with combustion engine cars, we used to design very large openings to cool down the engine. But now, because of the technology that we have at the moment,  front-facing cameras, radars and sensors, we’re able to showcase that technology in a way that it also makes the car look more modern, unique, and quite different from the rest. And then also the implementation of aerodynamics… How we designed those elements to be a part of it dictated how the car looks.

Nahum Escobedo: We saw an opportunity to showcase the technology that [Polestar 3] has, especially as it starts getting closer to autonomous driving. Showcasing that technology gave us the opportunity to also enhance the character of the car, giving it a different look. 

GDA: Where do you turn for design inspiration during a project like this?

Nahum Escobedo: As a designer, I think you’re constantly working. It’s a 24/7 sort of job. So inspiration, at least for me, it really comes from everywhere. I hardly ever look at other manufacturers or cars or anything like that. My inspiration usually comes from architecture, fashion, aeronautics, product design and graphic design. 

I think that it was very important to apply all those things, to try to find the balance and merge them into this sort of a Scandinavian design that we have. 

It’s quite exciting. It’s [also] very challenging, because you have all this inspiration coming in. But, also our course values being a Scandinavian design brand… Trying to find the balance to make something that looks good, but also ages well and has a timeless design… It’s very, very challenging. So, I try to gather inspiration from all of these other areas.

GDA: Would you say the SmartZone is one of the features of the Polestar 3 that challenges traditional luxury SUVs?

Nahum Escobedo: Yes, for sure. Because, you know, it also allows [drivers] to talk about, not only the car, but also the technology that is behind it. I think nowadays, that is quite important… A lot of the drivers know that there’s a lot of technology in their car. But to be [also] able to talk about it not only gives it a special look, but it creates interest.

I think celebrating technology is a big part of Polestar as a brand. We are doing things quite differently than they’ve been done before.

[Polestar 3 – Winner of the 2024 Good Design Automotive Design Award (Best Exterior Design) Image: Polestar] 

What was your initial vision for the aesthetic of the Polestar 3? Did it evolve over time?

Nahum Escobedo: From one of my first sketches when we were trying to develop or compete for this design… I didn’t really want to do a typical SUV. You know, usually… you will start with the silhouette. The silhouette will sort of redefine the type of vehicle. And at that time, there were two very distinctive silhouettes, which is the seven seater, typical SUV that you have, and then also this coupe that other brands have been exploring. 

I really wanted to create something different. Something in between that didn’t exist yet but also offers the capabilities of an SUV… This is also why you see a wing on the Polestar 3. Right now, this is probably the first SUV that has a wing on the front. 

So, you know, taking this approach of, ‘Why do we always have to go with the same sort of solutions?’ For me, at the beginning, it was okay to challenge that. And luckily… it carries into what it is now. Because this is, you know, it’s not your typical seven seater, it’s not a people mover. But, it’s a very exciting SUV that still has a lot of space and the capabilities of an SUV.

GDA: What would you say were the biggest design challenges that yourself and the team faced while creating Polestar 3?

Nahum Escobedo: I will say, integrating the wing and the front. Developing or designing something that doesn’t look like what everyone is doing was very, very challenging… I think nowadays, aerodynamics dictates so much about how the car looks from the exterior. And so for me, that was one of the biggest challenges. Also, having this very low roof and also keeping the interior space intact was quite crucial. 

As a brand this was our first electric SUV. So we had a lot of challenges, not only from the design point of view, but also when it comes down to the construction and the architecture of this car… I have to say, it was very tough, but we’re super happy that we ended up with this design and this look.

[Polestar 3 – Winner of the 2024 Good Design Automotive Design Award (Best Exterior Design)  Image: Polestar] 

 GDA: How does Polestar three propel a shift towards sustainability?

Nahum Escobedo: In 2020 we designed the Polestar Precept and this was sort of our beginning of looking into sustainable materials. Polestar 3 was sort of our first car where we started to really implement this process. [We started] really tracing, working with suppliers to develop new materials.

Mirabella: At the time, a lot of these materials weren’t readily available. For example, the flax composite. That took a really long time to perfect so that the two teams, from a product side, could evolve into what the designers needed to develop for the vehicle. That was a really exciting development… 

One of the really exciting things was the use, and we already had this in Polestar 2, but expanding again in terms of our traceability. So, using Blockchain technology to track and trace, not just cobalt, mica and leather, which we already had been doing, but also extend that to nickel and lithium.

Leather is a really interesting one, because we only take what’s wasted after the meat and dairy industry is finished. So we’re not creating a new waste stream, which is why the leather is actually very stable. That’s why you’ll see the impact proudly displayed on the headrest of Polestar three. 

Then beyond that we had the life cycle assessment report validated by an external party called Ricardo. It’s very transparent. It’s sharing our methodology. You can go and have a look at how they evaluated the impact of different materials in the vehicle, but then to have that backup of an independent body that says, ‘Yes, we can certify that this vehicle’s impact is correct, and the impact at launch is less than the Polestar 2 when it was launched.’ 

There’s been a lot of learnings along the way that have led to this vehicle, and it continues beyond Polestar 3.

[Polestar 3 – Winner of the 2024 Good Design Automotive Design Award (Best Exterior Design) Image: Polestar] 

What effect do you hope that this sort of innovation will have on the electric vehicle space?

Nahum Escobedo: I think this will have a big impact… I mean, now designers have a big responsibility. It’s not just about creating a beautiful object that can take you from point A to point B. We also have to be very conscious of the decisions we’re making. 

And so I think at least my dream will be that, and I’m not just talking about Polestar, other companies will collaborate more with suppliers to really push the envelope and then make a change for a more sustainable future. 

And I think if we do that, not only will the cars look different, but also my hope is that you will be driving [feeling] even happier. [Because] you know that you’re making a big change in the environment. But the more we explore this avenue, I think cars and the look of the cars will change a lot.

Mirabella: I think that leads into Polestar’s position on climate neutrality. We talk very openly about electric cars not being clean today. They are still the best option, but there’s a long way to go. The way that you do that is that you charge with renewable energy during the usage phase, but you look back down the supply chain to address all the emissions down the line. 

So exactly what Nahum is saying, that you need to collaborate more within the industry to drive change among suppliers and in manufacturing as well. It doesn’t take just one brand to do that. It takes collective action. And so that’s really what Polestar is pushing for as it moves towards creating a climate neutral car in 2030. It’s something for the whole industry to get involved in and get behind.

Designing cleaner, driving happier 
In the spotlight of the 2024 Automotive Design Award (Best Exterior Design), Polestar 3 invites other brands to join their movement towards sustainable mobility. Design process inclusions like the life cycle assessment report represent a commitment to industry-wide change. Overall, this design project was underpinned by collaboration and optimism from day one. The result? A luxury SUV that’s beautiful from the inside out.

ARIA Sight Through Sound for the Blind – Robert Pataki Award for Healthcare Design

The Robert Pataki Award for Healthcare Design encourages the next generation of designers and innovators to create conceptual design solutions aimed at helping to improve the quality of life for people living with a disability, who live in an aged care environment and for people working within the Healthcare System.

The Award is named in honour of Robert Pataki, OAM, recipient of the Australian Design Prize (2022) and Life Fellow of the Design Institute of Australia.

Imagine a world where sight through sound unlocks new dimensions of independence and mobility. This is becoming a life-changing reality, thanks to ARIA Research, the proud recipient of the inaugural Robert Pataki Award for their groundbreaking wearable technology, ARIA (Augmented Reality in Audio).

This trailblazing device that turns sound into sight for those who are blind or visually impaired. These sleek, futuristic glasses harness cutting-edge machine vision and AI to transform raw visual data into a rich, 3D auditory landscape, delivered through binaural speakers embedded in the arms of the glasses. This revolutionary technology empowers users to “see” through sound, dramatically boosting their sense of freedom and navigation.

Embodied in ARIA Research’s work is the very essence of the Robert Pataki Award: a relentless commitment to innovation and user-centric design. By collaborating closely with end users, the team tackles real-world challenges and advances assistive technology in meaningful ways. Their smart glasses are not just a leap forward – they are redefining the limits of what’s achievable.

Inspired by Daniel Kish’s remarkable echolocation techniques, ARIA blends spatial computing with AI to redefine how people navigate and interact with their surroundings.

In our recent chat with tech entrepreneur Robert Yearsley, he shared insights into the challenges and successes of developing transformative devices. Yearsley emphasised the crucial role of user-focused design and how Robert Pataki’s legacy continues to drive innovation.

[Winner of the 2024 Robert Pataki Award for Healthcare Design Winner – ARIA. Image: Aria Research]

GDA: What were the main design challenges faced during ARIA’s development?

Robert Yearsley: The first is miniaturisation. It is a major design challenge when developing new, efficient algorithms and hardware technology to compact all this amazing technology into an acceptable package. We’re getting close to the final version.

The second is figuring out how to actually render the world through sound, so it isn’t just through speech. We could put labels on the sounds of objects where they are in space, and just play that out like a fire hose. The problem is, if you look around your desk, there’s probably 20 or 30 different objects, and if we just bladed all that information at you, you’d tear the device off and, because it’d be horrible. And indeed that’s where we started. 

So there’s a really interesting design challenge to build a philharmonic presentation of spatial sound that is pleasing and informative. So this is kind of like inventing music, and indeed, we take cues from music, but also environmental sound as well, to make a convincing simulation or portrayal in real time. So, a major challenge is to invent a new form of perception that transforms visual-spatial information into aural-spatial information – something that hasn’t been done before. This is a large part of our work.

GDA: Can you tell us more about the design team behind this innovation?

Robert Yearsley: At the outset, the design of the company itself was very deliberate. The history of assistive technology is more or less what we call the assistive technology graveyards. So before Mark and I started the company, we conducted a root cause analysis to understand why that’s the case. We found close to 60 different attempts at developing assistive technologies for people with vision disabilities in the last 20 years. That’s a lot, including everything from robotic guide dogs to canes, and head-worn devices, among other things.

There seemed to be a common thread: a lack of engagement with the customer, the end user. Very early on, we decided that rather than diving into product design and development, we would spend close to two years meeting with and speaking with the end user about what their problems actually were and what we went up with. 

It was a significant leap in design thinking because most assistive technology and solutions for vision disability revolve around trying to correct. What we found in speaking with blind people is that they didn’t care so much about fixing the eye. What they want to do is make their life a bit easier from the perspective of already being blind. And they’re very, very different things. So at the core, we discovered very, very quickly that the co-designer was going to be make or break for the success or failure of the company.

So we invested heavily in developing relationships with leading thinkers in the blind community to inform these design decisions. And it wasn’t just a study up front where we get a list of requirements and we disappear for five years and go build it – that also would have ended in failure. What we decided to do is employ blind subject matter experts, bring them into the company, and part of their role is to basically help us course correct, because sighted assumptions equal bad products. 

We have this well informed process where we can continually tweak, improve, course correct and iterate towards the right kind of solutions. And that’s made all the difference for us, and we will continue to do that and build upon it.

[Winner of the 2024 Robert Pataki Award for Healthcare Design – ARIA Research Team. Image: Aria Research]

GDA: What is ARIA’s potential health economic impact in reducing system costs?

Robert Yearsley: One of them is mobility. For instance, the NDIS is delivered through sighted guides. This means paying someone to drive out to your house, pick you up, help at home, and run some errands. This totals about 6.7 hours of service per week, costing close to $21,000 a year, which is quite substantial.

ARIA can potentially complement the use of a sighted guide to enhance perception, but we also believe it will eventually serve as a substitute. There is a significant difference between getting out and about by hanging onto someone’s arm and getting out and about with a colleague, a friend, or even a worker on your own terms. That’s the true potential of ARIA.

Regarding the mobility use case, with about $21,000 to $22,000 a year for 6.7 hours a week, ARIA would come in at roughly half that cost, while increasing access to mobility from 6.7 hours a week up to about 100 or 120 hours a week. So, we go from expensive and scarce mobility to a situation where mobility is cheap and almost always available at will. Additionally, sighted guides are human and need to be booked in advance. Currently, personal mobility has to be scheduled in advance, potentially a week or two before you actually need it. The ability to travel out of your home at will would be life-changing for people with vision disabilities.

Another important aspect is that with independent travel and movement, there are a range of health benefits. Notably, the number one comorbidity experienced by people living with blindness is depression. It’s not surprising – being alone much of the time and dependent on others can significantly limit one’s world. Expanding someone’s world and physical movement can have a direct impact on mental health, which is incredibly exciting about this technology.

GDA: How does ARIA exemplify “The Design Effect” by using innovative design approaches to solve significant problems and impact users and communities?

Robert Yearsley: I think this has been a confluence of good things. I think that careful understanding of failure first – I’ve mentioned before that the assistive technology graveyard is what you really need to pay attention to – because it’ll tell you, first of all, what not to do, but it’ll also provide insights into the negative space, the things that weren’t looked at.

And for us, it was a happy convergence between emerging technologies and opportunity. I’m talking about artificial intelligence here, and, you know, lightweight mobile technology. It’s a new toolbox. Combine that with a really big unsolved problem.

Okay, so you’ve got new technology – think of a Venn diagram with new technology here. You’ve got a massive unsolved problem over here that the technology can enable a solution for. And then you’ve got an opportunity. For us, opportunity took the form of designing and engaging with the end user.

RIA had a massive amount of decline to actually build credibility and trust with leaders in the blind community, and the way to do that was to collaborate, is to actually make them part of the process.

So it just made straightforward sense to actually build a design process around not only co-design but also building by and for the customer. That meant really bringing them well inside the company, listening to difficult feedback sometimes, but fully embracing the problems that they thought were important – not us, the engineers and designers – and basically holding that in both respect and reflection of what they’re asking for and what they actually might really need.

So, it’s the Venn diagram of technology innovation, a large unsolved problem, and this opportunity to pull together the components needed and the insights required to do a good job. So that’s kind of our design approach.

[Winner of the 2024 Robert Pataki Award for Healthcare Design ARIA Benchtop Prototype 2021. Image: Aria Research]

GDA: What does the spirit of Robert Pataki mean to you? 

Robert Yearsley: He did some pretty incredible work. And that spirit of innovation in good design that can have a great impact, about practical problem solving, I think is something that should be encouraged.

There’s no shortage of problems out there, but good solutions are very difficult to arrive at. And his work exemplified the work you actually put in to arrive at those kinds of solutions.

As a recipient of the award, I would be pushing for other designers to be thinking about that – solving big but practical problems, and getting to the nitty-gritty of what the end user really, really wants and needs.

In this spirit, the Pataki family shared their thoughts, “The Pataki family is excited to have ARIA Research be the worthy recipient of the inaugural Robert Pataki Healthcare Award.”