Bentley asked students to ‘predict British luxury in 2050’

Bentley is the latest car company to ask up-and-coming design students to imagine what its future products might look like. As per usual, when millennials handy with a pencil and computer graphics program start experimenting with car design, the results are… outlandish. Some are barely even cars.

The designs come courtesy of the Royal College of Art’s Intelligent Mobility programme. Bentley’s current design boss Stefan Sielaff sums up the designs as  “concepts that could potentially lead us in new and interesting directions, using the perspective of these digital natives – from all over the world – to see things differently. These second-year students are the ones who will be designing the cars of the future.”

A total of 24 designs were submitted to answer the ‘what will British luxury mean in 2050?’ question, with four being selected as the favourites.

‘Luxury Soundscapes’ by Irene Chiu’s is designed to selectively filter undesirable and stressful noises while at the same time allowing pleasurable bioacoustics to remain.

‘Material Humanity’ by Kate NamGoong suggests true luxury in the future will be the choice to occasionally drive yourself in an internal combustion vehicle, when the rest of the world is fully autonomous and electric. With traditional engines becoming such a rarity, Kate imagines that people will want to see the mechanical workings – just as they do with luxurious mechanical watches today. We like Kate’s work especially.

‘Stratospheric Grand Touring’ by Jack Watson imagines a scenario where international business travel will no longer restrict where people are able live. Though if you’re a billionaire with a private jet runway outside your pad, that world might already exist.

‘Elegant Autonomy’ by Enuji Choi looked at the importance of British etiquette in a future with driverless vehicles built for smart cities. The project focuses on the etiquette of ingress and egress. Quite right. Very good. Tickety-boo.

Anyone got any other ideas on what a Bentley might look like by the middle of this century?