One Creative Director’s Utopic Vision for the Future of Driving in 2022
Dirk van Ginkel, creative director of design and experience agency Jam3, explains how different technologies like Augmented Reality can enhance the future of driving and turn ‘boring commuting time’ into meaningful & memorable bonding experiences.
Meet Pablo. He and his partner are in their mid-40s. They have three kids who are all under 10 years old, and a dog. Driving anywhere with this crew is a whole time. The kids are bored. The GPS is distracting. The dog is barking. The radio is too loud or not loud enough. The whole family is annoyed, and the kids are staring down at their phones.
There are a million things that everyone in Pablo’s family would rather be doing than sitting in the car — even the dog has somewhere else he’d rather be.
Research shows that families are more frequently seeing time spent in the car as time wasted. The joy of driving and the notion of enjoying the freedom of the road has dramatically declined.
Fewer young people are getting drivers’ licenses. And while roughly 75% of American consumers are open to connected technology providing updates regarding traffic congestions and suggesting alternative routes while driving, they are distrustful of connected technology on the whole.
We’re all constantly connected to our screens, and it’s become a bigger challenge for families to find dedicated time to spend together.
Commuting Can Be Communal
So what if we could use technology to transform car travel into something that’s family-focused and enjoyable for all? How can we evolve the driving experience to reduce frustration? How do we reframe car trips as time for families like theirs to connect? And most importantly, how do we do this while making sure our solutions are safe?
Because short drives to the grocery store and the long drives to the Grand Canyon should feel like time enjoyed, not time wasted. With smart thinking and creative innovation, car trips morph into rare opportunities to spend dedicated, interactive, engaged time with each other. Make the box that is a car an exciting space, not a claustrophobic mess. We think developing connected tech experiences on car trips — ones that are fun and safe — can help families reclaim time they otherwise would feel was lost.
Imagine ending a four-hour drive more relaxed than when you started.
Augmented Reality = An Enhanced Experience
So how do we go about doing that? In the near future, we will be able to use AR to enhance the view right outside our car windows. Using a tablet or a transparent window display, passengers can interact with the live landscape, adding characters or embellishing the scenery. We can develop games that all car passengers can play together with what they see outside and around them, bolstered by AI that generates new questions on the fly in response to internal and external stimuli.
We can create ways for passengers to interact with their GPS systems that make dream versions of their journey. Or think about how we could introduce mindfulness and meditation to family trips with ambient soundscapes and reflection exercises. Imagine ending a four-hour drive more relaxed than when you started.
These tech-enabled concepts all but guarantee that passengers will look up from their phones, engage with each other in a fun and safe way, and make it so that families actually want to get into the car together.
Returning to Pablo and his family, let’s imagine that they load up for a trip outside of the city — maybe they want to take a two- or three-hour drive to the closest waterpark. When Pablo plugs the destination into his GPS, the whole family is invited to play an interactive game together.
The game might ask questions like, “What does the place you’re traveling to look like?” or “What else happens in this city?” Everyone in the car will be tasked with answering questions, and the AR system will create a vivid image of where the family is traveling. Once the whole family arrives at the waterpark, they’ll get to see the image that they’ve all dreamed up together. They’ll hit the water slides excited and inspired.
By thinking about technology, we can work to solve the problems of tomorrow. Families will look up from their phones, play together, and feel like their drives are worthwhile.
Car trips should be an opportunity for families to truly be together — by integrating technological solutions, families like Pablo’s will start to see errands as easy and fun, and long drives as a dream.
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