Designing a shared future for autonomous transport

In 2016–17, at the beginning of my university studies, I entered The Telegraph UK STEM Awards, a national competition for students pursuing STEM degrees. The brief, sponsored and judged by McLaren, was to propose a vision for the future of autonomous transportation.

My proposal explored a subscription service for shared autonomous vehicles. I argued that shared access could accelerate the adoption of autonomous vehicles, allowing more people to benefit from greater convenience, productivity and safety without relying on traditional private vehicle ownership.

The proposal considered how the model could work commercially across several stakeholders, including automotive manufacturers, private companies, ride-sharing platforms and individuals through a peer-to-peer model similar to Airbnb.

The idea was selected as the Winner in the Innovation Category and was one of five overall winning entries from approximately 3000 submissions nationwide. Across the three-stage competition, I had the opportunity to present my thinking to industry leaders and executives from organisations including McLaren, Babcock International, The Telegraph and the BBC.

As part of the prize, I spent the summer of 2017 working with teams across McLaren Racing, McLaren Automotive and McLaren Applied Technologies. I refined the proposal with McLaren’s experts and gained first-hand insight into how a world-leading technology and automotive company approaches innovation.

The experience helped shape my interest in technology, product development and entrepreneurship. Two years later, I co-founded Vennle, a startup building transit management software for shared mobility operators, drawing on many of the ideas and perspectives I developed through this project.