Today and tomorrow maybe similar in many ways, however, this won’t be the case for too long. IDEO’s vision of tomorrow will bring us much more than we expected. In the near future, our mobility will change, altering the ways we behave and shifting our focus from ‘driving’ to completing other tasks. In 15 years, IDEO predicts, our self-driving vehicles will provide a new experience as we move from place to place. Those will be followed by autonomous delivery vehicles, and later on, they will provide for mobile offices providing efficiency, convenience, and a way to make use of vacant city space. “The Future of Automobility” is a conceptual presence from IDEO, which aims to change the future of the workspace and delivery services. Their main focus is to improve life and infrastructure, striving to present greater audiences with more than one option to live or to travel. For example, they are designing methods of “inverting” commuting (the workplace will come to the person) or to optimize the way in which things are delivered.
Part of the Future of Automobility project, IDEO produced three different concepts. The first one is a driverless car that will conduct itself with the help of GPS, object sensing, lane-keeping and object avoidance systems. The interesting part is that the technology used for this prototype will enable it to travel a lot faster and communicate with other vehicles, while not being subjected to specific human errors, such as tiredness or lack of attention. Imagine this, once on the road, your vehicle will link with other cars travelling to similar destinations. The automated driving system will give you the freedom to sit back and chat, have meetings, or eat your breakfast on your way to work. The daily drive will transform to allow for better use of time and for more tasks to be accomplished.
The second concept, Cody, is another driverless car that will be used as a delivery truck, using the same technologies, except the biometric scan which will be the way in which customers can claim their packages. Imagine this, once on the road, your vehicle will link with other cars travelling to similar destinations. The automated driving system will give you the freedom to sit back and chat, have meetings, or eat your breakfast on your way to work. The daily drive will transform to allow for better use of time and for more tasks to be accomplished. The third concept, WOW (Work on Wheels), is based as well on the idea of inverting man and machines. The working spaces will travel to employees, through a reconfigurable pod. For example, it can be placed between two offices, and will travel from one team to another, saving time. It’s hard to say whether projects such as The Future of Automobility really are profitable, but for sure they are magnificent ways of using today’s technology and are fun not only for the people that create them, but for the people who use them.
BY: Ala’ Abuhasan & Lidia Ratoi
