Programmatic Cars

https://www.inverse.com/article/29214-autonomous-car-design-sex

The future of automation is quickly being constructed to improve efficiency and privacy within everyday human life, and one of the largest factors relies on transportation, especially the use of cars. At a conference hosted by Tech 2025, Kota Kobayashi, the keynote speaker, speculates and aims towards a society with autonomous cars that are designed to meet our specific needs in a way that allows us to finish certain activities and errands while on the move. This provides a more affordable and time saving resolution for a wider range of social classes, rather than a human chauffeur in which only the top 0.1% can utilize. The most similar comparison to autonomous cars in this case would be an in-flight experience, in which the 3 main categories for activities are relaxation, entertainment and productivity. With the notion of trying to apply these options into cars, Kobayashi found that people cherished the privacy, the length of trips and the freedom of movement (to get out whenever). The main contrast is the sense of privacy within a car versus a plane. It’s public and private space, so the goal is catered towards creating a car that feels like an extension of one’s home, a place one would feel comfortable, secure and independent. That image would redefine transportation for society. Moreover, he believes that the things people want to do in their cars will determine the type they purchase. “He imagines that we will have things like sleeper-cars, or meeting cars, or kid-friendly cars.” This would be done through the use of spatial organization and seat placement that would define the amount of possibilities. Such concepts are brought to light in recent movies, such as the driver less trucks in Logan that had no cabins and were just dangerous speeding containers on wheels that had no intelligence of it’s surrounding traffic, which would be terrifying to deal with in the case of an accident. This division of car-functionality is much like separating rooms in a home programmatically, and that your car would serve as an extra room- that could move at the same time. It becomes tricky when you desire something more well rounded and for multi use, although Tesla and Volvo are working on more likable concepts of that sort, cause in the end would it even be worth it to “bring your home onto the road”. Not all people need this level of efficiency, but it doesn’t hide the fact that it would increase the well being and comfort of one’s life.

Zicong Will Wang