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Future of Mobility and Design. Foresight lectures at Domus Academy

In the last half of March 2021, I gave a couple of lectures on the future of mobility for Domus Academy (one of the most prestigious postgraduate design schools in Italy and Europe, with whom I collaborated before several times). Specifically, the lectures took place inside the Envisioning Workshops for the Masters in Product Design and in Urban Vision & Architectural Design.

The goal was to try to give a perspective on the rise and development of the concept of mobility, starting from the origin of history, and arriving at the most contemporary trajectories of technological and societal innovation.

In the first place, it was a great opportunity to share many insights from past projects on future mobility, especially those developed with the Bassetti Foundation. For instance, Meet the Media Guru | Around Mobility, a semester of research ad conferences created together with MEET, the Digital Culture Center of Milan; or Self-Driving Society, an extensive educational and research project developed with Politecnico di Milano.

The future of mobility & the design profession

It was extremely interesting to discuss such an important topic for the future of society and our profession. In fact, the rapid development of new mobility innovations is impacting deeply the world of design and its practice. Understanding these transformations and being able to navigate them, is going to be critical for designers, who will play a huge role in 

Here below a selection of the slides from the lectures:

Self-Driving Society. My white paper presented at Milan Design Week

Responsibility Driven Design for the Future Self-Driving Society is a white paper I wrote in 2018, analyzing the development of driverless technology and the impact that the adoption of AI on mobility innovation will have on the society of the future.

The work was developed at the School of Design of Politecnico di Milano, within the course Self-Driving Society @2030 that I helped design and lead in collaboration with Fondazione Giannino Bassetti, while serving as Senior Consultant. To learn more about the structure of the entire research project, the course, and the design tools and its impact, you can explore the full case study here.

The white paper was officially presented during Milan Design Week 2018 at Smart City: Materials, Technology & People, an exhibition curated by Giulio Ceppi for Material ConneXion Italia and hosted at Superstudio Più in Via Tortona.

Emilio Genovesi from Material Connexion and Francesco Samorè from Fondazione Giannino Bassetti open the event Da Smart a Autonomous: la trasformazione delle città tra Intelligenza Artificiale e Driverless Mobility, in front of a crowd, during Milan Design Week 2018 at Superstudio Più Tortona. Self-Driving Society. Event by Fabio Besti Giulio Ceppi Fondazione Giannino Bassetti
Fabio Besti speaking in front of a crowd during the event Da Smart a Autonomous: la trasformazione delle città tra Intelligenza Artificiale e Driverless Mobility, Milan Design Week 2018 at Superstudio Più Tortona. Self-Driving Society. Event by Fabio Besti Giulio Ceppi Fondazione Giannino Bassetti
Fabio Besti speaking in front of a crowd during the event Da Smart a Autonomous: la trasformazione delle città tra Intelligenza Artificiale e Driverless Mobility, Milan Design Week 2018 at Superstudio Più Tortona. Self-Driving Society. Event by Fabio Besti Giulio Ceppi Fondazione Giannino Bassetti

I had the opportunity to present the work and discuss its topics with Fabio Terragni, President of M4 spa, Leandro Agrò, Digital Design Director of Design Group Italia, Giulio Ceppi, founder of Total Tool and Professor at Politecnico di Milano, Tommaso Gecchelin, Founder and CTO of Next Future Transportation, Angela Simone, Project Designer and Manager for the Bassetti Foundation, and Francesco Samorè General Secretary of the Bassetti Foundation.  

The white paper can be freely downloaded alongside the design tools that are described within the paper, via registration for the Bassetti Foundation newsletter.

Rethinking mobility, data, and public space

The discussion opened with reflections on how AI and automation are influencing not only transportation, but also the design of public space and urban infrastructure. Giulio Ceppi (Total Tool, Politecnico di Milano) and Tommaso Gecchelin (Next Future Transportation) emphasized the need for a shift in how we imagine flexibility and intermodality in city planning—moving beyond efficiency toward new, meaningful forms of collective experience.

Giulio Ceppi during the event Da Smart a Autonomous: la trasformazione delle città tra Intelligenza Artificiale e Driverless Mobility, Milan Design Week 2018 at Superstudio Più Tortona. Self-Driving Society. Event by Fabio Besti Giulio Ceppi Fondazione Giannino Bassetti
Tommaso Gecchelin speaking during the event Da Smart a Autonomous: la trasformazione delle città tra Intelligenza Artificiale e Driverless Mobility, Milan Design Week 2018 at Superstudio Più Tortona. Self-Driving Society. Event by Fabio Besti Giulio Ceppi Fondazione Giannino Bassetti
Tommaso Gecchelin speaking during the event Da Smart a Autonomous: la trasformazione delle città tra Intelligenza Artificiale e Driverless Mobility, Milan Design Week 2018 at Superstudio Più Tortona. Self-Driving Society. Event by Fabio Besti Giulio Ceppi Fondazione Giannino Bassetti

The role of design in shaping technology

A second round of the debate focused on the position of design in the development of AI and automated systems. My contribution here touched on the need for new frameworks—like the Responsibility Matrix—that help designers anticipate the ethical and societal consequences of their work. Fabio Terragni (M4 spa) and Leandro Agrò (Design Group Italia) shared perspectives from the mobility and product design industries, exploring the balance between user-centered design and systems thinking.

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Governance, responsibility, and the self-driving society

The final part of the conversation addressed policy, governance, and the responsibility of innovators. Francesco Samorè (Fondazione Bassetti) raised the key question behind the entire initiative: Are we designing a self-driving society—or just letting it happen driverless? In this sense, AI becomes not only a technical concern, but a socio-political one. Angela Simone (Fondazione Bassetti) offered insights into stakeholder engagement, while I presented the idea of positioning tools to help practitioners act responsibly within fast-moving innovation ecosystems.

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The white paper and tools (Responsibility Matrix and Collingridge Positioning) are available for free at selfdrivingsociety.fondazionebassetti.org. Here below the full videos of the event.

All images and videos are courtesy of Tommaso Correale Santacroce