The Circular Couch Theory

Thoughts on Apple Car, Part 150

I have been discussing the importance of the interior design in autonomous vehicles for five years. Part of that was to think up eventual design decisions that come up when consequently applying focus and reduction to the essence of what is needed in a smart room on smart wheels – the term used by Neil Cybart and a few others when describing the closest metaphor to future self-driving cars.

Initially, I followed the pipe dream that an interior could basically consist of anything imaginable – once the square room that I and others envisioned will drive itself, what we can use the inside for is really up to individual needs.

Using Steve Jobs’ quote from his iPhone introduction, noting that the touch screen could „bring any user interface up“, I have shortcut this in a straight line to the floor of Apple Car’s inside. That was too simple in thinking, and unrealistic in any possible hardware execution.

Later, I boiled interior use cases down to three. Coming from the logical take-me-from-A-to-B raison d’être for the car, I’d say it would primarily be used on the go to work, work out, and hang out. This was what I considered Apple-marketing language, applying the rule of three, easy to understand.