Amruth Chinnappa
Every good technologist and designer believes so. Isn’t the very idea of a good product or service to allow the future consumer a semblance of helplessness without it? How would life change then, in a world of connected cars, cogless traffic and trucks with missing ‘Horn Ok Please’ stickers on their rears.
The answer might be, not much. Humanity, unfortunately is a fickle lover. An autonomous car might be a bit of a shock to a fair few and to be fair, it is not really in one’s comforting, sweet control. Does it move in a way we’re used to, or was that cut into the next lane too risky?
We do complain about everything don’t we? Traffic, the neighbours, taxes, tax cuts for others, all of them maddening. We acknowledge their existence however and bend our lives ever so slowly around them.
We do live in a society of excess, inflatable buys and disposable purchases. Like all other pieces of great technology, an autonomous future doesn’t seem too bad. It definitely acts as another great leveler, between competitive car purchases and expensive performance upgrades.
Again, the gentle mistrust of society on technology is something which says more about people themselves. Notwithstanding a steady few, the vast bulk of sentience is fairly consumed with escape and discovery at the same time.
To be pushed out of comfort but in a safe way, of course. It is quite true that there’s always the one man in line at the escalator who doesn’t really trust stairs that move, but you can fall only once and you end up on a different floor either way. So that’s a win-win right?
The bigger question here would be the matter of investors for these large-scale projects. Streaming giants like Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney-Hotstar stand to gain the most from a moving living room.
Would homogeneity and the need for brand-coordination in connected travel reduce the performance requirements for your car and make your suspicious-looking Omni the only long-term investment you’ve made that makes sense?
The case for this seems very likely and all the more reason why these entertainment giants might be the next big player in the automotive sector. Would I then need to worry about not paying my monthly premiums and slowly realize that my car is slowing down in the middle of traffic, or worse get a notification on the window for all to see.
What horror hath the future in store? David won, but the Goliath need only swing once.
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