From MIT's Technology Review:
IKEA designs future autonomous cars that work as hotels, stores, and meeting rooms
The furniture store’s research lab has dreamed up seven ways we might use autonomous vehicles if we don’t actually have to focus on driving.
Once cars can finally drive themselves, we’ll have more time to enjoy the journey and do other, much more interesting stuff instead. At least that’s the concept behind some of the designs below, developed by retail giant IKEA’s “future living lab,” SPACE10, based in Copenhagen.
The design studio/research lab came up with designs for autonomous vehicles that would be extensions of our homes, offices, and local institutions. Some of its seven ideas, shown below, are almost practical. Who can’t imagine autonomously driven cafés or pop-up stores? In fact, they already exist in California—in the form of self-driving cars that have groceries stocked in their back seats.
Other concepts might need a bit more thought, particularly the ones that SPACE10 envisions delivering resources to underserved communities. It may be difficult, for example, for a self-driving health clinic to bring medical care to truly remote areas. Nevertheless, the designs are useful for sparking conversations about the ways autonomous vehicles could transform everyday life.
space10 and f°am Studio
Why not turn your entire commute into one long meeting? SPACE10’s Office on Wheels would enable you to not just work on your way to work, but also hold group discussions in a mobile version of a conference room.
space10 and f°am Studio
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Previously:
Honda Patents an Autonomous Mobile Living Room
Ogilvy & Mather UK Vice-Chair Rory Sutherland on Driverless Showers
Driverless Hotel Rooms: The End of Uber, Airbnb and Human Landlords
