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58 December 2018 | AutoData CAREER » BRAZILIANS ABROAD “One of the judges was the head of interior design, who was surprised by my choice. And he surprisingly proposed to present my project to the head office in Wolfsburg.” He won the competition (which gave him the right for an internship in the com- pany) and stayed there for eleven years. He also passed through Italdesign and Mercedes-Benz until he reached the cur- rent Audi position. His most recent work was the interior of the Q8 model, the gre- “very difficult”: “Maybe the second gene- ration, which will hit the market from the second half of the next decade”. The team he is driving today started the study of autonomous vehicles at Audi ten years ago and (today) he is dedicated to topics much deeper than technology itself. For example, technicians are now looking at ways to get rid of the nausea that many passengers feel when reading anything on moving cars. After all, what’s the use of an autonomous car, giving the occupants the right to do whatever they want during the ride, if dizziness and dis- comfort take a ride on the road? THE PRIEST’S BLESSING Graduated in industrial design from Mackenzie University (the opposite of his father’s wishes, a lawyer) Mauricio Monteiro did not see many professional opportunities in the Brazilian market. He began to look outside: he searched the United States, but the cost made the mis- sion non-viable. He left with his wife (also Brazilian) to Essen, Germany, equipped with nothing more than “the face and the courage: wi- thout a visa, without a job, without money”. At night, Maurício slept hidden in the lodging of his companion’s college. Du- ring the day, his wife worked in a clothing store and he protected himself from the cold in a Lutheran church. It was not long before the minister noticed him, in theory, a faithful devotee. “I talked with the religious in a ‘Spa- nish-Portuguese’ language, since he had already been in South America as a mis- sionary. As time passed, we agreed that I would help with some services in the church and he would teach me German in return.” A year and a half later the adventurous man entered a post-graduate course in design at the local university. Some time later, Volkswagen promoted a project contest with the students and to diffe- rentiate from the others, instead of dra- wing the exterior of a car he opted for an interior sketch. ON BOARD OF THE CREATION Mauricio in the Salão do Automóvel de São Paulo, in November: not bad for someone who used to sleep in a lodging, as a favour and hidden