This year's LA Design Challenge asked carmakers to envisage what the social networking obsessed youth will drive in 2030. MARK NICHOLtakes a virtual tour
THIS DECADE was brought to you by the letter “i”. Damn that little i. And damn you, Apple, for giving lazy product marketers all their Christmasses at once: “Hey guys, the testing department reckons our new smoothie maker can’t even pulp a banana without melting its circuit board, but don’t worry, we’re going to take all the buttons off it and call it iBlend.”
And who wouldn’t want iBlend? I’d even pay 99c for the iBlend app from iTunes, and then blend stuff on my iPhone while waiting for iPlayer to finish downloading Top Gear.
You see, the letter “i” is indicative of this generation’s obsession with functionality. Everything has to work together, to be easy and harmonious. And sticking an “i” in front of something says, “not only do I work, but I work for you, and I work with everything else you have, and you don’t need to do much or think much to make me work. Download me, install me, open me, and I’ll make your life an iLife. And an iLife is easy.”
Now, before you start decrying this as a piece from one of the “you ought to get outside and get some fresh air” brigade, know that we’re all for progress. We like watching Top Gear on Macs and getting e-mail on our phones. But there’s one development that we’re not so sure about: the iCar. There’s no such thing as an iCar yet, but if the entrants to the 2009 LA Auto Show Design Challenge are anything to go by, in 2030 every car will be an iCar.
The iCar designer knows that years of IM (instant messaging) and social networking have left teenagers with attention deficit disorder, so driving will need to be done while also doing a million other things.
So, if you can’t drive, the car of 2030 will get where you want to go while you both learn to drive and play video games. If you can’t even be bothered to do that, just join a high speed “grid” and your car will take you to your destination.
These are just some of the things that carmakers think will be a good idea in future.
The annual LA design competition invites designers to free themselves from the shackles of balance sheets, focus groups and marketing men to design what they like. This year’s theme of Youthmobile 2030, asked for a car aimed at “a new generation of drivers aged 16-23 raised with cell phones, web cams and online communities”.
In other words, what will your average mouse potato “n00b” driver be tweeting about in 2030? We’ll still be using Facebook and iPhones, just like we’re all using Ceefax and pagers now, but rather than being an escape from all the things that keep us glued to screens and unable to interact with other human beings properly, in 2030 the car will be an extension of them. So the car’s role as the ultimate giver of freedom is taken away.
The concept of the design challenge is brilliant but the idea that as soon as 2030 we’ll be designing our cars using our phones, or being transported on a high speed grid, is quite harrowing. There’s a very good reason why I don’t design my own car: because it would look worse than the one Homer Simpson dreamed up. Or it would look exactly like a Lamborghini Gallardo. Or Dannii Minogue.
There’s also a very good reason why combining the fundamentals of social networking with driving is a bad idea in reality: where would we go? Our cars would be rendered superfluous if they were part of a bigger online social networking picture.
This might sound a bit twee, a bit old school, a bit Friends Reunited, but wouldn’t it be better if the carmakers were giving the kids a reason to move away from their virtual lives with their cars? That said, if my car looks like any one of the LA challenge’s entrants, I’d be taking pictures daily, and they’d be going in an album called “Check Out My Ride” on Facebook.
CARS FOR THE iGENERATION
GM CAR HERO
With Car Hero you play a game of pretending to drive while the car automatically takes you there. The better you get at the game, the more control you have of the real car – and others can join in for some multiplayer action.
MAZDA SOUGA
For $2,000 (about €47 in 2030) you can use a computer to design and buy your own Souga then pay a monthly charge for the electricity it uses – “similar to a cell phone business model”, says Mazda. Odd, because most business models don’t condemn the business to bankruptcy like this one would.
HONDA HELIX
It reads your DNA then changes with you over time, so by 2060 it’ll be slow, crumpled up and unable to muster more than a mile or so without stopping for a cup of tea. Its shape shifts depending on where you’re driving. Oh – and it flies.
NISSAN V2G
The contest winner and another phone-inspired entry. V2G buyers choose a “GRID access plan” (that’s the road network of 2030) that determines where they can go. The body can be “hacked” so users create a unique car for themselves.
TOYOTA LINK
Social networking on the move. Each driver has a Link that connects with others to share music, swap photos or generally LOL with one another.
AUDI EORA/ESPIRA
These two cars by Audi are thought-controlled.
