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“Smart vehicles could do traffic management between themselves in a dynamic network”
Steve Wells, COO, Fast Future: “Artificial intelligence could radically change car servicing in the future. Components will be continuously monitored against increasingly large and sophisticated data sets – covering both the way the vehicle is driven and the service history of the component in other vehicles. Analysis of the data will provide the opportunity to replace a component before breakdown; thus reducing costs and the inefficiency of withdrawing the vehicle from service. While this is of course helpful to all vehicle owners, the advantages to fleet and commercial operators would be significant. Autonomous vehicles could even be set up to drive themselves to the service centre for component replacement. 3D printing represents a potential game changer for the automotive industry; not just in manufacturing, but also in service and maintenance. Take the example of a 3D-printed car with 50 components compared to a current day car with 5,000. Firstly, there are fewer components to go wrong. Not only that, we would see components manufactured at the service centres when replacements are required. The component MEETINGS INTERNATIONAL No. 20 2017
specification could be downloaded from the manufacturer's database and printed on the service centre's printer.” Maria Romero, Foresight Researcher, Fast Future: “The combination of AI and fully electric cars would simplify these machines as we know them today. Tesla's cars today already have an extra front trunk. With the introduction of AI to manufacturing and design, some car parts would be able to adapt to several functions, eliminating unnecessary redundancy. A steering wheel could be designed to morph into a headrest when not in use, for example. Vehicles themselves could gain modular capacities to enhance the passenger experience; autonomous cars could become programmed to behave as pods that link up with other pods, creating in effect an ad hoc mass transportation system. With less to maintain and AI monitoring the car's performance constantly, less time and money would be required for maintenance. Physical repair shops might be rare and centralised. AI-to-AI online assisting would be the norm. A specialised self-driving repair fleet would attend major cases wherever the vehicle is.
The user interface (UI) will be key for the future of smart cars. UI customer support could become the main issue with these vehicles. Repair shops would need to focus their services on the UI to be able to respond to the rising demand. Driverless cars should create safer roads for everyone. However, an extended consequence of a dramatic reduction in car accidents might also cause organ shortages. This market gap could be filled by an increase in regenerative medicine, nanomedicine and smart implants. Ultimately, organ shortages might open up the opportunity to present human augmentation as a socially acceptable option. Driverless cars could become an extension of – or actually replace – your home. Combined with trends like remote working, gig working, co-working, informal and seasonal work, along with other fluctuations in employment for which “the office” has become moot, we could imagine a future where people can literally live safely on the road. Physical addresses might be replaced by our cars’ IP addresses and delivery system would know to adjust dynamically. Parking areas could turn into leasing spaces to