Warning signs

Design and engineering lead-time tightening may be strangling innovative thinking, says Royal College of Art's Harrow.

Prof. Dale Harrow, Head of Vehicle Design at London's Royal College of Art (RCA) and one of Europe's leading automotive design gurus, is concerned that the need for ever more speed is damaging creativity within the motor industry. That is not speed in terms of km/h; it is the almost desperate speed at which new models and technologies are created.

That speed from concept to production is now “almost fantastic,” warned Harrow-but it is leaving too little time for fresh thinking.