I recall this famous spat between Bill Gates and General Motors in which
Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and
said: "If GM had kept up with the technology like the computer industry
has, we would all be driving $25.00 cars that got 1,000 miles to the
gallon." On that comment, seems General Motors got back with "OK. But
who would want a car that crashes twice a day”!
Now, before you want to head out to sue me for attributing those mudslinging
statements to respected personalities, let me admit that it is an internet
humour.
But it does seem that the reality is finally catching up with the humour.
With regards to their shiny possessions called cars, the humanity is at the
cusp of next evolution. They have driven to an inflection point, at the altar
of which the driver... (biological name - homo sapien driverus) is going to
have to be sacrificed. For the homo sapien driverus, the coming age will be what
ice age was for dinosaurs. And With equal impact – ie their extinction.
The car makers have finally woken up to tango with the huge advances in
the fields of technology and computing of last decades. And in the emerging scheme
of things, it’s the driver that is going to get tossed out...of the car! In the
mirror of the future, that reality seems nearer than it actually appears.
The machine in the car is raring to claim its liberty from human driving
inanities. Google has already put driverless cars on streets of Nevada who have
logged in hundreds of thousands of miles without any serious incident. And others
are in the fray.
There are millions of homo sapien driverus out there waiting to rid themselves
of banality that driving can be - painful and time wasting at that. Who wants
to be constantly on edge because some blond believes that ‘triple parked’ is
fine because there is something called ‘double parked’! Or because someone’s car is being wobbly and
headed straight for yours, because that guy behind the wheels is insanely
drunk!
When future is that clear, I am wondering about the kind of changes that
are about to arrive on the scene. Or shall I say on the road! As far as the
physical persona of the car itself is concerned, I reckon it will mutate into a
single block of cabin with neat and clean contours and design...more like a luxury
room. And the engines will be housed somewhere underneath the Cabin totally unseen
unfelt and unnoticed. The mechanical parts will be like a separate platform,
but solidly fused with the cabin over it, both fused with massive technology, thus
making them an integrated whole.
While today, the cabins are designed to allow for mechanical controls
jutting inside the car’s body, that obviously will no longer be necessary. With
those sticks and pedals and what not having retreated out, the entire cabin
will truly be the passenger’s personal space. And this passenger is a person
who is on a set of fast moving enclosure, but nothing to do. What to do next? Answer
- keep him occupied.
So the next logical thing will be that this guy needs to be entertained,
he needs a place to sleep, chat, read, and most importantly..connect.
The windscreen as is known now will morph into a piece de resistance, with
embedded Augmented Reality (AR) layers, and will reclaim the dashboard instrumentations
as well unto itself. The entertainment cum communication hub will be directly etched
into the windscreen. The windscreen will mutate into different types of
displays depending on context and requirement. It can show all car vitals
(speed, fuel and other meters). You can watch movies and TV. Run a photo slide
show. Use it as your computer’s screen. Maps will be embedded into it, with
real time navigational abilities. Oh no no, you are never ever going to be lost
again! Real time traffic updates. A high speed Internet connection will be
available on tap.
Whatever you see through the windscreen can be extrapolated on the
screen with AR layers. So moment the India Gate is in view, every detail about
it will be populated on the screen. You just gotta speak, and it will obey your
commands – start music, show the video, connect to your grocery store and buy
provisions, book tickets to your favourite show. Totally voice enabled. And
touch too.
The entertainment and communication technologies will be tightly
integrated. Just imagine.. you can look up a friend on facebook, initiate a
call to him right from facebook window, run slide show of his photos; if you notice
a nice landscape on a photo, query to know where it is located; do a virtual
visit to that place; obviously book your holiday for that place. And all these
activities happening through one single window - the windscreen.
The Car’s technology will also have a solid overlay of weather
information systems. As the sun will melt into the sky, the headlights, with
appropriate level of luminescence will come up on its own. Come rain, hail or
sleet, the wiper will activate – again all on its own, and at appropriate wipe
speed. Weather warning advisories will flash up.. again on that
windscreen.
Seating is going to have to be re-designed. In a manner that it can
re-shape in a sleeperette – I guess, planes of today are going to be inspiring on
this front. And they – the seats - will be embedded with all sorts of massage presses,
knocks and punches to relax your (tired?) body. Mood lighting, limousine kinda
facilities, refrigerator, bar, what not.
Drunk driving will fade away in oblivion. Rather, drunk while being
driven could become popular. I mean on a 1000 mile journey, it could be me,
car, and the drink!
It will be a marriage worth watching out for – of the mechanical with
the binary, while discarding our homo sapien driverus! But then, that march of
technology will not be able to stop us from humming the vintage John Denver... Country
roads, take me home, to the place I belong, west Virginia, mountain momma, take
me home, country roads.
Cheers,
mg
PS: All views are personal. Intellectual property rights reserved.
