to AAA research director Jurek Grabowski.
This last conversion is not inconsequential,
but hints at the more prosaic truth about the
use to which autonomous car interiors will be
programmed, at least in the near term. Early
adopters will not be partying, sweating or
shopping, but more likely working.
As a recent survey published by the
Auto Insurance Center shows, consumer aspi-
rations for these third spaces are more mun-
dane than car brands would like to believe.
When 2,000 people were polled about
how they would spend their commute in an
autonomous vehicle, the top three responses
were reading, catching up with friends and
getting work done. This imperative to work
may be more than a factor of overzealous
employers and our always-on work culture.
Ralph McLaughlin, chief economist at real-estate platform Trulia, argues in an essay for
Fast Company that each paradigm shift in
transportation technology has preceded an
urban exodus, and that self-driving vehicles
might prove the biggest motivator of all as it
suddenly becomes practical for white-collar
workers to vacate the city centre for larger
homes in rural areas. ‘Driverless cars will
mark the beginning of society’s expansion
to the exurbs,’ says McLaughlin. ‘The game
changer here is that driverless cars will lower
the time cost of commuting.’ He goes on to
point out that ‘high-income households are
more likely to engage in knowledge work
that can at least be partially done while
riding in a driverless car’.Slaves to the screen
The figure of the mobile office is something
that most automakers and strategic design
agencies have flirted with. And while such
a scenario might not gain as many column
inches, it is the one that has the most far-
reaching impact on autonomous-car design.
Just as car companies are becoming tech com-
panies, so too are their cars being reframed as
devices: digital platforms that will immerse
us in a range of hyper-rich media experiences
from our favourite providers. If you think
the six-inch screen you carry around in your
pocket is beguiling, wait until it becomes
your total environment. No matter how
enigmatic the individual concept, the collec-
tive picture of our autonomous future has
developed one consistent trope: a profusion
of screens – on windows, on roofs and, as
in the recently launched Volvo 360C con-
cept, even on tabletops. The agreements on
what you might see there are already being
signed. BMW has supported Microsoft’s
Office 365 in some of its vehicles since late
2016, and both BMW and Volvo recently
announced Skype for Business integration.
It seems inevitable that Adobe, Autodesk
and Slack will soon make similar plays for
this most captive of audiences.Driven to distraction
If the autonomous vehicle is to become a
place of work, however, this is not a future
to which we should aspire. Prevailing trends
in office design today acknowledge the
attention deficit caused by constant digital
distraction, instead prioritizing spaces that
empower employees to disconnect. At the
same time, over the past 12 months growing
consumer concern about screen addiction
has seen Apple, Instagram and Facebook
bow to public pressure and install tools thatThe BMW Vision iNEXT employs what the car brand
describes as ‘shy tech’, meaning most interfaces are
integrated into the fabric of the interior.Co
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