It was a wonderful indian summer day in Boston, Massachusetts back in 1999, sailing boats were battling it out on Charleston River, joggers lined the river banks, and many a Red Sox fan was silently dreaming and hoping that one day, yes one day, their cursed team may win the world series again.
At the MIT Media Lab — back then, one of the culmination points where all things digital were being research and thought through by a multinational, highly switched on crowd of academics — I had the pleasure to attend a conference labelled “The Future of Cars”, where researchers from different faculties and Research Groups came together with industry representatives to discuss how digital will transform cars and how we will use them in the future.
To be honest, I don’t remember much from that day back then – the one example that sticks in my mind is a research project on intelligent rear-mirrors, that were able to measure objects approaching too fast and warn the driver that someone was approaching his or her car at collision course — a simple algorithm that measured how fast 2D spatial objects increased in size and calcs the speed based on this.
Today, many higher end cars have similar technologies as standard built in. And the connected car has definitely arrived. How disappointed do I usually get when I step into a rented car and find out I can’t connect my iPhone via Bluetooth and listen to Spotify. Damn, feels like being thrown back into the neolithic ages.
While smart digital systems already assist and take a lot of hassle and bad moments out of the driving experience (and some fun too, as sporty drivers like to emphasize), we are looking at a even more radical digital transformation of cars in the future. Our recent PwC Strategy& study estimates a revenue potential of >155bn USD by 2022, split across safety, autonomous driving and services delivered in and out of connected cars.
If ongoing tests and pilots continue to build momentum, we will soon be driving without our hands on the wheel, or even sitting on a backseat enjoying the car basically drive itself from A to B. Of course the car can also inform us of any location specific things we need to know, offer us services and entertainment, or contact the closest garage, if the engine is making strange noises.
In our viewpoint on the Connected Car 2016 we are also looking more broadly at how connected cars will become a part of our daily lives – the how and the why.
If interested, please have a look here
p.s.
for financial services i see a big potential in using the time we are being driven by autonomous cars more productively, e.g., engaging with my bank or FS provider around advice, reporting, transactions or just catching up in general and discussing ideas.
With the right multimedia Interfaces that experience can actually be made quite enjoyful, and people will definitely “have more time” and “be at ease” than at work or right before stepping into the car or when finally arriving at home from a long commute.
This article first appeared on LinkedIn Pulse
