Land Rover design chief embraces 'modernity'

Nostalgia for toggles, dials, knobs and rocker switches has no place among the design team at Land Rover, according to the company's Chief Design Officer, Gerry McGovern.

Speaking with Australian journalists during the global launch of the Range Rover Velar and the four-cylinder Jaguar F-TYPE, McGovern informed the correspondent for motoring.com.au that the Velar's Touch Pro Duo infotainment system would not be a short-term fad eventually going the way of corduroy bellbottoms and paisley shirts.

Other than two rotary dials in the lower section of the centre fascia the Velar's smartphone-style interfaces – there are two of them – operate by dragging a finger over touch-sensitive surfaces to swipe, scroll or select. It's an example of what McGovern calls 'modernity' in practice. The Land Rover exec is not using the term modernity in a lay sense, he's referring to a design movement that can trace its origins back many decades.

"Well, modernity isn't the fashion, because... the first step into modernity was in the 1930s with [German design school] Bauhaus – and we really saw it expanding in the mid-century, in the 50s in America and in Britain, post-war. That's the modernist approach to architecture, to design in general… [it's] been around for a long time, and what is great about that now is that the technology that we've been able to develop is really enabling that type of design approach.

"There's always a level of fashion that comes into communications or connectivity... but I don't think it's going to suddenly go away and we're going to go back to lots of switches..."

There are different schools of thought where automotive ergonomics are concerned. BMW incurred the wrath of motoring journalists all over the world (and consumers too) when it introduced the first iteration of iDrive with its single-point controller. But in adopting smartphone operational ergonomics car companies seem to be on a winner. Land Rover's Touch Pro Duo is a generally easy system to use, despite the sophisticated level of multi-tasking available to users.

Even if consumers should want an infotainment interface of a more traditional kind, Land Rover won't be swayed, says McGovern.

"We have to remember that we're designing for a new generation, and maybe the likes of us... we still want nostalgia. But there's a balance to all of this. That's why in terms of our heritage we're very cognisant of it, very respectful of it, but we need to move it on, because if we don't then we're perceived as being retrospective... for me that's a slippery slope."

Asked how far his 'reductionist' vision of instrumentation and controls could go, McGovern pointed out that in theory, level five autonomous vehicles could take all controls out of the driver's hands. Although he didn't say as much, infotainment and comfort/convenience features could be ultimately controlled by voice – or the Velar's Touch Pro Duo system could be further refined for touch and/or gesture control.

"There's the legal implications, there's our own in-house standards," McGovern explained. "I think there's a balance... maybe the vehicles that are specifically targeted to a younger profile, you could take them [switches and dials] out completely, whereas to a more established profile there's that comfort in knowing there's something there that you can [still operate in a conventional way].

"For me, there's that thing about overload information. At the end of the day you're driving a dangerous object. It's a driving machine, and I think too much visual confusion in the interior is a bad thing."

The Land Rover designer says that the bleeding-edge aspirations of his team sometimes need to be reined in.

"There's always a natural tendency, particularly for our engineers, because they're bright, to want to put more and more in. I have to remind them: 'Look, you're not designing for yourselves, you're designing for consumers, and they're not wired in the same way you are, and we need to be careful that we don't make things over complex'."

On that front, if the Velar is any indication, it's a case of so far so good.