Robin,

I think you’re playing an important role in encouraging people to think this through — which has hardly happened yet. You must feel a bit like you’re talking to travel agents about the internet, in 1994. People just can’t imagine the new reality yet, or see how significant it will become, and that it will be so much better if we all work it out together.

I think it’s important that this issue doesn’t just become the preserve of mayors, car firms, and urban planning talking shops. It needs to become something that businesses and everyday citizens begin to take an interest in.

Right now technology is scaring a lot of people, and the “Unicorn” tech firms are taking your Peers Inc model and using their dominance of the platforms to ride over a lot of people, despite creating brilliant services along the way. There is going to be no greater flashpoint than shared electric autonomous vehicles. It’s the ultimate clash in positive American values — between the “Jetsons”-style 1950s/60s technological utopia and the “Two Lane Blacktop”/”Cannonball Run” idea of individualism and freedom. The businesses and lifestyles that will emerge from this clash need to be artfully built. We can’t leave it to the technocrats. Not even Elon Musk will get it right on his own.

It strikes me that it would be great to put together a pool of money — probably start at about $1–2 million — that can commission ten talented film-makers to create a series of ten short movies. I’m thinking along the quality lines of Vimeo’s excellent “Staff Picks” output. These would present different heaven and hell (or mixed) interpretations of what’s coming, in the form of short stories and situations. The stories won’t necessarily be about the autonomous electric vehicles in most cases — they will probably just be part of the backdrop in the story. I figure the best approach, once the backing is secured and in the bank, would be to bring together the film teams and spend a week really exploring the technology, the questions, the issues. We shouldn’t spend too much time getting people to sell their ideas to us. We want them to be fresh-minded, open-minded and unattached to ideas. During the week we get it all out — bringing various sides together to hammer things through with the kind of people you spend your days and nights talking to. And then the filmmakers head away and make some short movies, drawing on the input and assistance of any of the experts you‘ve given them access to, that they hit it off with. We’d need to work with the ten groups to establish a set of complementary strands so we end up exploring a variety of scenarios, but do that artfully — sensitively. People will take this forward in amazing ways, if we do it like that. And we’ll all have some powerful material to help us think this through, talk about it, and reflect on what future we want.