NEAR FUTURE AUTOMOBILE EXPERIENCE

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PITCHED CONCEPTS:

- Next Hub for Apps

- It Should Sense us / Know us / Remember us

- Seek New Affordances in What Is Already Present

- Windshield as Augmented Reality 

- Seemless Communications

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In a unique collaboration between Audi and CCA, I and 14 other Audi AIR Fellows worked to shape the car which could function as the transitional vehicle to the fully autonomous. 

 

The current 5 to 7 year design cycle for automobiles is a crucial one. The implication of connected autonomous vehicles, has compelled every automaker to solve for the transformation of how we think of and use our cars in a connected world. 

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Along with my team members Matt Boedicker and Lorel Deel, we linked technological and communal trends, to garner insight, develop actionable concepts, prototype and imagine new business models which might position the car as a next device in our growing ecosystem of connected things.

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By focusing on the challenges inherent with urban car ownership, coupled with the trend of increasing urban population density, it becomes clear, car ownership in cities has many downsides. And the upsides steadily diminish with excellent public transit, car-sharing, Uber or Lyft services and punishing parking policy.

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The question which comes to mind:

Is there anything else we happily endure  so much hardship for? and why?

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The Pet seemed an appropriate analog. 

With this in mind we worked around the notion that our feelings about our vehicles will be key to the adoption of the car's coming connectivity.

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The transitional car must bring delight to the urban car owner, not just in horsepower and handling, but in how it manages, curates and expresses information. In short we will need to love it, the way we love our phones, the way we love our pets.

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