From Constructing Future Landscapes to Developing Conceptual Narratives: Promoting Design Innovation in the Vehicular Metaverse through Forecasting and Backcasting

Abstract

The fusion of automotive and metaverse, the vehicular metaverse, is considered the next Internet revolution, bridging physical and virtual spaces. Innovation in the vehicular metaverse requires a bold visionary design while addressing real-world needs and industry concerns. This article proposes a novel transformation paradigm for the automotive metaverse, consisting of two stages: constructing future scenarios and developing scenario narratives. It also introduces an innovative design method for the automotive metaverse that integrates strategic foresight (SF) and design thinking (DT), which is structured into Phase–Key Assumptions–Methodology–Steps–Examples of Methods. In the Constructing Future Landscapes stage, we established a future sign library of 60 cases based on four dimensions, which serve as important materials to construct future scenarios; in the Developing Conceptual Narratives stage, we provided a domain case library of eight case types through LDA topic modeling, helping participants form innovative solutions. Various tools such as future wheels, metaverse product matrices, and conceptual aggregation templates were integrated into the six-step process to form a heuristic innovation methodology. Practical application through an online workshop yielded good results.

Keywords

• future landscapes
• vehicular metaverse
• conceptual narratives
• conceptual innovation approach