Translating American Car Culture

Alcatel-Lucent hosted a 20 minute brainstorming session on the future of the automobile, and among the predictable and uninteresting suggestions (you can already unlock your car with an iPhone, folks) was a man from India that suggested that sustainability and car sharing would be important. In a country of billions, not millions, of people, the perspective is completely different than our own here in the States. While we are lucky to have personal motorized transports, its true that India and China can't copy us without consuming vastly more fuel and raw materials.

The next hero in the developing world must be a Steve McQueen that carpools or a James Dean that races through the streets of Chennai in a biodegradable solar powered sled, or those kids will inherit our automotive entitlement and no one knows where we'll find that much gas or bury that many batteries.

With so much talk of safety and sustainability, another facet of the American driving experience was completely missing from the discussion - joy. Some of us actually like to drive. I admit I enjoy driving much less than I once did, but I still have a convertible and still look for two lane winding highways any chance I get. This emotional feeling of freedom and adrenaline moves the car beyond appliance, but is the biggest challenge of transportation design in the coming years.

The carmakers that will dominate the market will be able to balance a reliable way for a billion people to commute without choking on smog or sitting in rush hour with a hobby that can be enjoyable when you don’t have to get somewhere. For all their dealer networks and marketing cachet, the real winners will find engineers up for the challenge of building the feeling of a 1962 Ferrari with the utility of a 2001 Toyota and the sustainability of a wind farm made out of aluminum cans.

Posted via email from Fear and Loathing at SXSW Interactive