Can You Help Public Media Redefine the “Driveway Moment?”
As I cruised through the streets of Palo Alto in a Tesla a few weeks ago, I wondered… when you’re behind the wheel of a self-driving car, are you technically still driving, or are you now riding? What do other drivers think when they see you with your eyes on a screen (albeit an enormous one) and not on the road — are they as terrified as you are right now? And how wild is this self-parking thing?!
That ride made clear to me that self-driving cars, or autonomous vehicles, aren’t in our future — they’re already here. Tech companies, ridesharing companies, and automakers around the world are preparing for this new world. So are urban planners, elected officials, attorneys, architects, and academics.
What about public media? How should we prepare?
I manage KQED’s innovation lab and Kristen Muller oversees content innovation at KPCC. Liz Danzico is NPR’s creative director. Together, with the help of a grant from the Jim Bettinger News Innovation Fund, we’re exploring the opportunities the future of automated personal mobility presents for public media — and we’re hoping you’ll help us.
Our audience’s habits are deeply tied to the automotive experience. We hear all the time from people who say their public radio station makes the commute bearable. Our lingo reflects that connection: the “driveway moment,” the pledge drive. Many listeners have strong, sometimes lifelong associations between NPR and their cars.
But once our hands and — more importantly — our eyes are free, the traditional audio experience might start to feel lacking. In his recent book, The End of Advertising, Andrew Essex argues that autonomous vehicles offer news and entertainment brands an opportunity to re-think their relationship with their audience by surprising and delighting them.
We wholeheartedly agree.
Public radio’s original mission statement is awesome. Crafted by Bill Siemering in 1970 — when there were only three major broadcast networks and the Internet still decades away — it feels just as resonant today:
“National Public Radio will serve the individual; it will promote personal growth; it will regard the individual differences among men with respect and joy rather than derision and hate; it will celebrate the human experience as infinitely varied rather than vacuous and banal; it will encourage a sense of active constructive participation, rather than apathetic helplessness.”
— Bill Siemering
If we are going to continue to “serve the individual,” we are going to have to adapt to the changing needs of our listeners, to surprise and delight them in new ways and new settings.
For the past several weeks, we’ve been talking to a wide range of people — experts on autonomous vehicles, futurists, and just plain enthusiasts — and we’re just getting started. We’re wondering what autonomous vehicles will look and feel like a year from now, five years from now, and 10 or 15 years from now. Are there modern-day analogues, like riding a train or plane? What role will smartphones play? Will the car itself become the device — a far more powerful mobile device than our smartphones can ever be? And what happens when you’re riding with a friend, or a stranger — can experiences be tailored to different passengers?
We’re trying to figure out how other media companies — not just those who produce radio — are thinking about content creation for this new experience. What are their hypotheses about passenger behavior, and how did they arrive at them?
We’re also exploring the ways this coming disruption might affect habits beyond content consumption. Will families, neighborhoods, or even entire communities share cars? What kinds of changes will there be in the way we interact with one another? Will there be new opportunities to enhance public media’s ability to bring people together?
We’re excited to head down this road (see what we did there?). In the coming months, we’ll share what we’re learning and thinking about, so keep following these posts. And please do tell us your thoughts, predictions, and needs. In a world full of autonomous vehicles, how can public media continue to serve you?
