The march towards autonomous cars filling the world's highways over the coming decades currently appears to be more the question of when not if. As we approach a future where humans are no longer responsible for controlling their vehicle we are provided with an opportunity to reinterpret what a motorized vehicles should look like.
In the mid 1990's General Motors proposed "AUTOnomy" a hydrogen fuel cell powered concept vehicle. The unique premise of the AUTOnomy is that instead of having the primary engine placed in the front or the back of the vehicle, energy storage and power generation capacity (in the form of hydrogen fuel cells) are placed in a platform that looks akin to a thick skateboard. This skateboard allowing for designers to create readily changed body designs for passengers to utilize. The real question is could automotive design go even further? In a future where the very nature of vehicle ownership is in question why would the markets create only a single platform for passengers and storage capacity to dock? Instead of one really cool skate board concept that is exclusively built to run on hydrogen fuel cell based power, the automotive industry could push their boundaries of design by embracing containerization.
Shipping containers revolutionized the shipping industry by providing a known target for engineering teams to handle, whether by truck, train, or tug (I am using the word tug to keep the t scheme going), companies know that they will encounter, the shipper doesn't need to worry about the mode of transport so long as it is in the container. Passenger and luggage capacity in transportation could embrace a similar rational, creating a standardized attachment types and available volumes. Carriages designed to carry passengers would come in several major sizes, from individual privacy pods, to sports team road trip. Luggage space would follow similar growth curves. With each pod sized standardized, a range of autonomous vehicles could be optimized for various parts of a journey, from small urban transports intended for rapid pick up and drop off in a stop and go heavy environment to highway transport trains (akin to the Australian Road trains) moving large numbers of passenger pods along highway routes. This containerization would also allow for trains and boats, maybe planes, to be integrated into the autonomous transport ecosystem, passengers would punch in their destination and depending on what mode(s) of transport made the most sense for that journey would be offered.
One example would be a cross country road trip, for that I would want to take a scenic route, so my queuing system would offer me rides via various transport platforms and depending on how many back roads I wanted to take I would spend more or less, the more back roads, the more money you spend.
Shipping could also benefit, when autonomous vehicles are less utilized, at night for example, companies could move their inventories more cheaply when more vehicles were available.
10/26/2015 some follow up. Spectrum had another interesting take on autonomous vehicles earlier this summer where researchers suggest turning autonomous cars into service stations that you use while in transit. Containerizing vehicle design could compliment this concept rather effectively.
In the mid 1990's General Motors proposed "AUTOnomy" a hydrogen fuel cell powered concept vehicle. The unique premise of the AUTOnomy is that instead of having the primary engine placed in the front or the back of the vehicle, energy storage and power generation capacity (in the form of hydrogen fuel cells) are placed in a platform that looks akin to a thick skateboard. This skateboard allowing for designers to create readily changed body designs for passengers to utilize. The real question is could automotive design go even further? In a future where the very nature of vehicle ownership is in question why would the markets create only a single platform for passengers and storage capacity to dock? Instead of one really cool skate board concept that is exclusively built to run on hydrogen fuel cell based power, the automotive industry could push their boundaries of design by embracing containerization.
Shipping containers revolutionized the shipping industry by providing a known target for engineering teams to handle, whether by truck, train, or tug (I am using the word tug to keep the t scheme going), companies know that they will encounter, the shipper doesn't need to worry about the mode of transport so long as it is in the container. Passenger and luggage capacity in transportation could embrace a similar rational, creating a standardized attachment types and available volumes. Carriages designed to carry passengers would come in several major sizes, from individual privacy pods, to sports team road trip. Luggage space would follow similar growth curves. With each pod sized standardized, a range of autonomous vehicles could be optimized for various parts of a journey, from small urban transports intended for rapid pick up and drop off in a stop and go heavy environment to highway transport trains (akin to the Australian Road trains) moving large numbers of passenger pods along highway routes. This containerization would also allow for trains and boats, maybe planes, to be integrated into the autonomous transport ecosystem, passengers would punch in their destination and depending on what mode(s) of transport made the most sense for that journey would be offered.
One example would be a cross country road trip, for that I would want to take a scenic route, so my queuing system would offer me rides via various transport platforms and depending on how many back roads I wanted to take I would spend more or less, the more back roads, the more money you spend.
Shipping could also benefit, when autonomous vehicles are less utilized, at night for example, companies could move their inventories more cheaply when more vehicles were available.
10/26/2015 some follow up. Spectrum had another interesting take on autonomous vehicles earlier this summer where researchers suggest turning autonomous cars into service stations that you use while in transit. Containerizing vehicle design could compliment this concept rather effectively.
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