Comments on: "We're not too far away from driverless cars" - MINI head of design Anders Warming

By: glp

glp — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 08:18:00 +0000

Driverless car – ace! I’ll take the drift king version please: sideways round every corner, roundabout and slight kink in the road, at the press of a button.

By: ROJ

ROJ — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 15:18:00 +0000

Driverless cars will never be appealing among car enthusiasts. Such technology will sell only among people that have no knowledge, interest or passion about cars or driving. As a matter of fact, I would rather see well trained and skilled drivers on the streets. Driving skills is what people need in today’s cars, not more driving aids.

By: Dan Leno

Dan Leno — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 02:12:00 +0000

Again, another mindless plan from the worst planners out there. Luckily, today cars need drivers to get them around, a fact that somehow limits their presence in the city.

Imagine if they could get around without the need of a driver! For car designers design thinking seems to mean problem making. The car industry seems to be totally detached from context! As the fall in car sales show, people are sick of these objects – it’s pointless to try selling them by adding cute features. It’s not about features; its about typology.

Driverless cars are not our future; car-free cities are. If it wasn’t for the car industry’s political influence, we could have achieved that already.

The highlight of this interview comes around the end of it: “We want to have less cars in the city so BMW invented this system so that anyone can access a car in just five minutes! :) Genius.

Just move the cars out of the way and let new forms of mobility take over. In the end,
“you can’t solve problems using the same thinking you used when you created them.”

By: 4-wheeled romantic

4-wheeled romantic — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 18:49:00 +0000

Give me a ’65 Austin or a ’74 Innocenti any day of the week (or a 02-06 Cooper for that matter). Social media interfaces in vehicles just seems like another ridiculous luxury addition to already overly designed, soul-less contraptions that are only responding to technology as a way to incorporate more because “we can” thereby developing an unnecessary “need”.

I appreciate the commentary about the feel of driving and deciding on how it should take a corner. It’s too bad that’s not enough for most people.

By: @AutoConception

@AutoConception — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 17:22:00 +0000

Anders mentioned the pilot project in Germany, but there are also other wireless vehicle-to-vehicle, or V2V, trials taking place. Back in August the US government launched a project in Michigan that is the largest of its kind anywhere in the world.

Besides BMW, other car makers such as Mercedes and Volvo are developing wireless car design technologies as well.

Incidentally, Google also has a driverless car research project headed by Sebastian Thrun, co-inventor of Google Street View.