About time for a radical transformation of the car, as has the phone.

I am Gen X. I have been fortunate to witness the old and the evolution of the new. In my 30+ years, I have witnessed profound transformations in the way we live. Extraordinary technological advances and innovation in network connectivity, media, television, the Internet, mobile computing, music, power generation, health care, mobility, knowledge sharing, defence, space travel and social media have greatly improved the quality of life for most of us although we are still battling with the side effects and figuring out ways and means of limiting the harm being done.

As much as has changed in mobility and transportation, I opine that today’s cars are mere manifestations of 19th century cars when they first originated. Internal combustion engines are still powering a substantial percentage of cars, the driver interface – the steering wheel is still as-is, they still run on 4 wheels and are being manufactured and distributed in much the same way for the past century.

Over the past two decades, new technologies have reduced emissions, doubled fuel efficiency and several systems of the car have improved. Manufacturers have been striving to meet government regulations on MPG, emissions and safety rather than lead breakthrough innovation like has happened with the Telephone and the Internet. Path breaking technologies very much within reach have been stifled by commercial viability or political will.

In hind sight, it appears innovation in cars has been evolutionary – not revolutionary and not nearly as radical as the Telephone has changed in the past decade. The car business is still old school.

Ford Model T And Tesla Model S, Model T Image: Wikipedia

Some one who has never seen a car before will identify a car from the early 1900’s and a car produced in 2014 as being objects of the same type. Then & now, a car still looks like one. Can the same be said of the telephone?

Rotary Telephone And iPhone, Rotary Phone Image: Wikipedia

The need for movement of people and goods – mobility, has become a basic necessity of modern life and remains a fundamental problem in need of radical solutions. The car is special and makes a compelling case for revolutionary re-design.

What would a car be if it was being designed for the first time in this day and age? How would it look? What would power it? What would it’s primary objective be? What would drive our imagination and inspiration? Would we still develop cars or start with alternative mass transportation? Would cars become mobile pods integrating into mass transportation systems?

What would a car be if created from a clean slate?

It will be interesting to see radical improvements in the following areas:

1. Emissions Control & Passenger Safety

Automakers are already going head over heels to address these two areas. Revolutionary breakthroughs will happen within the next decade.

I hope that the movement towards Electric vehicles is justified – that the cost and environment impact of producing electricity for charging vehicles far out weighs direct consumption of fossil fuel.

Mobile Charging Station for Electric Cars, Photo: automofile.com

For electric vehicles, major development is required in battery technology to substantially increase longevity, allow wireless charging or charging from unconventional sources while on the go. I shudder to think of how laptops, mobile phones and other personal devices are rendered useless without charge. As much as they are intended to be mobile, we often have to be close to a power source in anticipation of the next recharge. We definitely don’t want this to happen with our cars.

Potential safety implications of electrics and battery technology are also be reviewed.

2. Driver Interfaces

In addition to the myriad controls for music, air conditioning, navigation etc., the driver primarily interacts with the car to steer, accelerate and brake (in addition to clutch operation in non-automatic vehicles). The car should take me from the origin to the destination with minimal effort and with least amount of coordination. Currently, in addition to my undivided mental attention, the car also requires full engagement and coordination of both my hands and legs. In the manner Apple redesigned the music player interface, a redesign of the driver interface using drive-by-wire technology is also much overdue. Until driverless cars come along where selection of travel points via audio instructions is the only thing I have to do, a wireless Joy Stick or gesture based controls are only two of many potential options.

Sony Walkman And iPod. Radical interface design.

3. Modular, Customisable, Scalable mobility platform

In order to meet stringent safety regulations and satisfy our egos, we’ve managed to build cars that weigh in excess of a ton. Every time I drive in my car (and most times alone), I feel like I am hauling metal given that I weigh a meagre 65 Kgs (143 lbs). What a shame to have to haul over a ton to transport the primary object (me) weighing a mere 65 Kgs! Is there a better way?

Colim Caravan Concept, Image: tuvie.com

What if the vehicle could transform or adapt based on the potential use, number of passengers, urban vs. highway travel, terrain, weather, traffic conditions and load volume or weight? To our place of work, many of us either travel alone in a car or on a two wheeler. With family, depending on whether we are travelling urban, going shopping, travelling with kids, going on a holiday / adventure or moving baggage to and fro the airport, our requirements from the vehicle are very different. To satisfy our various needs and changing requirements, we either compromise or have multiple vehicles. This is neither cost effective nor efficient either on the personal wallet, available infrastructure or earth’s resources.

The need is to have a Scalable Vehicle Architecture – one that encourages modularity, optimal utilisation of energy, infrastructure and resources depending on application, variable track and wheel base, detachable systems and enables vehicle adaptability based on the life situation of the user. In summary, we require low cost (CapEx and OpEx), adaptable, multipurpose vehicles.

Chery Ant Concept Car, Photo: green.autoblog.com

The Colim Caravan, Rinspeed Dock-Go, Citi Transmitter and CarGo are a few concepts based on the SVA architecture. SVA can also be applied to the concept of Road trains as with the Chery @Ant.

Much like Legos, we need scalable, modular cars that owners can configure to their requirements, dismantle and assemble for another application – easily and safely.

4. App-cessorize the car, democratise and expedite product development

iPhone App Store

Just like iTunes did to Music, App Store did to the iPhone, Google Play did to Android, Kindle Store did to Kindle, a common platform is needed where third party app developers and accessory designers can design software and/or hardware to pre-defined OE manufacturer interface specifications and make available for car owners to buy and customise their vehicles.

iPhone Hardware Accessory: Square Payment Gateway

This allows the OEMs to focus on what do they best – develop world-class mobility technology while promoting an entire eco-system of third party product developers to rapidly innovate, focus on development of bells and whistles, accessories, cosmetic bolt-ons, complimentary technology add-ons and in the process reduce cost of ownership. OEMs could also potentially derive licensing revenue from such platforms in much the same way Apple has done.

Such platforms have the potential to drastically speed up the development of technologies such as in-car entertainment systems, telematics, communications, driver interfaces, and navigation.

I would love to be able to enhance my car similar to adding apps to my iPhone, customising my Oakley by swapping out the non-polarised lens, changing the straps of my watch to suit my mood and shoes :), bolting on bicycle mounts to my GoPro camera or using my iPhone with Square as my POS at my retail business.

5. Open Source model for new vehicle development

Open Source Car Platform

Open source software development is now mainstream. Can the same approach be extended to hardware development? Can cars be designed in the open source paradigm?

In my opinion, OEMs must focus on requirements definition, lay out the broad framework for the desired vehicle and facilitate global, open source collaboration on development of the core mobility technology.

Unlike the pure open source software model, designers and contributors must be economic stake holders in the commercialisation of the technology to improve speed-to-market and the quality of deliverables.

OEMs should drive version & configuration management, prototyping, reusability, software-hardware interface development, know how management, documentation, regional regulatory compliance, branding, marketing, manufacturability, process & tool development, technical support, licensing, franchising and commercialisation – all of which they already do.

To take it a step further and reduce CapEx burden, startup OEMs should promote design for local franchised assembly, design for DIY quick repair and maintenance, over-the-wire monitoring and upgrades of production systems as well as vehicles.

In addition to levelling the playing field for new entrants, this framework will substantially cut bottlenecks and costs in the supply chain, transportation, taxes, repairs and maintenance, improve direct accessibility to customers and promote localisation.

6. Evolution of new production and distribution models

Like Dell challenged the traditional distribution for PC sales and took advantage of the Internet to build a fully integrated direct-to-customer online sales platform, its time car manufacturers invest in technologies and platforms that allow car buyers to research, compare, negotiate, configure, customise, finance, purchase, insure and track production and maintenance status of cars online.

If unverified data on car sales on eBay Motors is any indicator, in a single quarter of 2013 $1.8 billion worth of vehicles were sold. A total of 4.3 million used cars were supposedly sold on the platform. This is a mind shift change, a far cry from a mere bolt-on web store, a fundamentally new way of doing business. Such a platform needs to be built from the ground up with complete integration into sales, supply chain, manufacturing, support and in-vehicle information systems.

It is absolutely vital that traditional car manufacturers recognise changing consumer needs and behaviour and review every aspect of their design, manufacturing in light of emerging new technology. Unless every new product launch is viewed as an opportunity to embrace the new, companies like Tesla will leave them gasping for breath and very soon history will repeat itself like digital cameras did to Polaroids, DVDs did to VCRs, NetFlix did to Blockbuster and Amazon did to web hosting.

7. From car ownership to sharing to…

Given what I do and my life being intricately intertwined with cars, a lot of people ask me “Which car should I buy?” I often ask myself “Should I buy a car?”

With increasing car ownership and maintenance costs, increasing awareness of their environmental impact, safety concerns, emergence of viable alternative mass transportation, availability of lease options, rapidly expanding popular ride sharing platforms like Uber and Lfyt, and futurist plans where independent pods will engage and disengage with a mass transportation platform based on the traveller’s desired destination, it is possible that asking “Which car should I buy?” may be publicly scorned. For enterprise software, movies, music and books, ownership is already not the smart thing to do. Physical assets like homes and cars are also increasingly being leased and rented on a pay-per-use.

Will ownership of cars be around for a while? Will sharing or pay-per-use be the new norm? I expect some of these trends will catch on in a big way first in urban, advanced societies. Burdened by lack of infrastructure, the rest will follow suit over time and adoption will increase manifold much like happened with mobile telephony in China, India and other emerging markets.

8. Best and the brightest young tinkerers with new skills wanted!

My daughter yet to turn three, can unlock and navigate her way through the various applications on the Apple, Android, Windows devices we own. Recently, she stood in front of our old LED TV and was gesturing left and right. It took me a couple of minutes to realise she was extrapolating her interface on the other devices to the TV to navigate to her favourite recorded program. The expectations of her generation, their interaction and use of technology including mobility is undoubtedly going to be vastly different from mine – bringing with it new challenges and opportunities.

Its unreasonable to expect IBM Mainframe developers to develop the coolest mobile phone apps or thermal power plant engineers to develop the next generation unconventional power systems. New challenges require new solutions. The auto industry requires infusion of a new breed of the best and brightest young tinkerers with fresh perspectives, diverse talent and skills.

I am hopeful that more radical startup car designers and manufacturers will emerge. I am excited at the possibility that the “car of the future” will really look and drive like one.