Have you ever imagined what cars would look like in the future? Many sci-fi films that attempted such as Minority Report and I,Robot portrayed the future with elaborate footages of self-driving cars that drove in a coordinated manner, looked invariably the same and some even took to the sky. If we mapped this out across Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, cars of the future would sit at the apex of the pyramid.
The digital disruption has the potential to transform the automotive industry by providing new opportunities for smart autonomous cars. Now, cars can communicate, socialise and cooperate with other infrastructure and mobility apparatus. This includes other vehicles, traffic lights, mechanics, parking lots and dealers—thus enabling them to participate in a broad ‘system of systems’.
Going forward, car manufacturers need to adopt new business models to defend their ground by redesigning customer engagement and expectations. Advances in digital businesses and technologies are offering consumers new capabilities. The rapid reorganisation and the shift we are going to see in the future may constitute a new form of cars and a revamp of the whole mobility ecosystem.
