The Flying Cars Are Coming … To the New York Auto Show | Autopia | Wired.com) There’s a flying car coming to the New York International Auto Show this week. The Terrafugia Transition is a two-seat airplane with foldable wings, four wheels and turn signals. Over the past few years the Massachusetts company has called its creation a “roadable aircraft” and lately, a “street legal airplane.” But ahead of the Transition’s first appearance at an auto show, it’s perhaps more appropriate to simply call it what it is: a flying car. (via @rossdawson)
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The Flying Cars Are Coming … To the New York Auto Show | Autopia | Wired.com)

There’s a flying car coming to the New York International Auto Show this week. The Terrafugia Transition is a two-seat airplane with foldable wings, four wheels and turn signals. Over the past few years the Massachusetts company has called its creation a “roadable aircraft” and lately, a “street legal airplane.” But ahead of the Transition’s first appearance at an auto show, it’s perhaps more appropriate to simply call it what it is: a flying car.

(via @rossdawson)

Source: Wired

MIT Media Lab Rolls Out Folding Car | Singularity Hub

You think European cars are small now, wait till the Hiriko takes to the roads in Spain’s northern Basque country. The two-seater is about the size of a SmartCar, but when parked, it can actually fold. After folding the car takes up about a third of a normal parking space.

Source: singularityhub.com

Gen Y prefers hybrids over electric vehicles: study | SmartPlanet Deloitte’s annual survey of ‘Gen Y’ consumers found that a significant majority - 59 percent - of those respondents would prefer an ‘electrified vehicle’ over any other car or truck. Moreover, these consumers favored hybrid gasoline-electric vehicles (57 percent) over all-electric vehicles (2 percent) or traditional gasoline-powered cars (37 percent). […] Could this mean that we will see automakers shift away from pure electrics and towards improving their hybrid fleets moving forward? This might be a significant insight, but there are a number of dimensions missing. One I think of and I see signs of is new emerging business models where the pricing and availability of electricity might dramatically change both the types of available vehicles as well as how mobility is paid for by the consumers.  
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Gen Y prefers hybrids over electric vehicles: study | SmartPlanet

Deloitte’s annual survey of ‘Gen Y’ consumers found that a significant majority - 59 percent - of those respondents would prefer an ‘electrified vehicle’ over any other car or truck. Moreover, these consumers favored hybrid gasoline-electric vehicles (57 percent) over all-electric vehicles (2 percent) or traditional gasoline-powered cars (37 percent).

[…]

Could this mean that we will see automakers shift away from pure electrics and towards improving their hybrid fleets moving forward?

This might be a significant insight, but there are a number of dimensions missing. One I think of and I see signs of is new emerging business models where the pricing and availability of electricity might dramatically change both the types of available vehicles as well as how mobility is paid for by the consumers.  

Source: smartplanet.com

Highway to Health | Metropolis Magazine

Incorporating wireless technology into its newest cars, Ford prepared to roll out vehicles capable of monitoring everything from pollen counts to glucose levels.

Renault Opens Up the ‘Car as Platform’ - Tech Europe - WSJ

Open innovation is finding it’s way into the automotive industry through an pre-installed tablet with Android.

PARIS — Renault has launched what it describes as a “tablet,” an integrated Android device built into its next range of cars, effectively opening the way to the car-as-a-platform.

[…]

“The car is becoming a new platform,” said Mr. Hoffstetter. He said the seven-inch device can be controlled by voice recognition or by buttons on the steering wheel. “We need help now,” he said. “We need developers to work on apps.”

When it launches, there will be about 50 apps bundled with the device, mostly written by Renault. “We will open a Renault app store for people to download their own apps,” he said.

Although Mr. Hoffstetter would not be drawn on the exact terms for developers, he said there would be a revenue share. “Although we are mainly concerned with adding value for our customers, an app store could be an extra revenue stream for Renault”, he said.

Knowing it is a really difficult task of opening up the closed way of thinking in the automotive industry, this is an interesting approach. The main question with this car centric approach remains, what would people really want with a fixed tablet in the car when they are having an as powerful tool in their pocket? 

Fully autonomous vehicle designed for the year 2030 | Transportation Charles Rattray’s vision of what the automotive industry will be capable of by the year 2030 is far more feasible that it may seem at first glance. Autonomo, his fully autonomous vehicle concept, certainly looks the part, but should not be dismissed as just another flashy concept car. As car makers worldwide gear up to face the enormous challenges posed by congestion, pollution, and infrastructural deficiencies, Rattray’s final year student project offers a glimpse into the world where these challenges are already a thing of the past. Inspired by biomimicry, sustainability, artificial intelligence and information technology in general, the concept draws on technologies that are already being developed in R&D centers around the world. (via @competia)
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Fully autonomous vehicle designed for the year 2030 | Transportation

Charles Rattray’s vision of what the automotive industry will be capable of by the year 2030 is far more feasible that it may seem at first glance. Autonomo, his fully autonomous vehicle concept, certainly looks the part, but should not be dismissed as just another flashy concept car. As car makers worldwide gear up to face the enormous challenges posed by congestion, pollution, and infrastructural deficiencies, Rattray’s final year student project offers a glimpse into the world where these challenges are already a thing of the past. Inspired by biomimicry, sustainability, artificial intelligence and information technology in general, the concept draws on technologies that are already being developed in R&D centers around the world.
(via @competia)

Source: zeitnews.org

Disruptions: For Teenagers, a Car or a Smartphone? - NYTimes.com The auto industry has a lot of problems. It has to worry about workers’ pension and health care costs, too-frequent recalls and the rising cost of gas. I think there is something else that should concern the automakers. It’s the iPhone. Teenagers love smartphones, and getting one has become a rite of passage. A driver’s license? Like, whatever. […] In a survey to be published later this year, Gartner found that 46 percent of people 18 to 24 would choose access to the Internet over access to their own car. Only 15 percent of the baby boom generation would say that, the survey found. “The iPhone is the Ford Mustang of today,” Mr. Koslowski said.
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Disruptions: For Teenagers, a Car or a Smartphone? - NYTimes.com

The auto industry has a lot of problems. It has to worry about workers’ pension and health care costs, too-frequent recalls and the rising cost of gas. I think there is something else that should concern the automakers.

It’s the iPhone.

Teenagers love smartphones, and getting one has become a rite of passage. A driver’s license? Like, whatever.

[…]

In a survey to be published later this year, Gartner found that 46 percent of people 18 to 24 would choose access to the Internet over access to their own car. Only 15 percent of the baby boom generation would say that, the survey found. “The iPhone is the Ford Mustang of today,” Mr. Koslowski said.

Source: The New York Times

Car Warns When Your Blood Sugar Is Low - Technology Review Your car may soon be able to warn you if your blood sugar dips, alert you to high pollen counts, and remind you to take your medication. Ford demonstrated the new in-car technology—currently a research project—this week at the Wireless Health 2011 conference in La Jolla, California. Many car manufacturers are now focusing on connecting their cars to everything. The question is if the car isn’t the wrong thing to connect everything to. At Volvo Cars 10+ years ago we were pretty convinced that personal mobile devices would take that niche so the car would provide the most value if it - if needed - became a seamless supporting infrastructure for all the personal devices. I still think we were right…
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Car Warns When Your Blood Sugar Is Low - Technology Review

Your car may soon be able to warn you if your blood sugar dips, alert you to high pollen counts, and remind you to take your medication. Ford demonstrated the new in-car technology—currently a research project—this week at the Wireless Health 2011 conference in La Jolla, California.

Many car manufacturers are now focusing on connecting their cars to everything. The question is if the car isn’t the wrong thing to connect everything to. At Volvo Cars 10+ years ago we were pretty convinced that personal mobile devices would take that niche so the car would provide the most value if it - if needed - became a seamless supporting infrastructure for all the personal devices. I still think we were right…

Source: technologyreview.com

Nissan is working with scientists to research the possible use of a brain interface in order to give the car information about intentions so that it can predict and prepare for the next actions a driver will take. Nissan is undertaking this pioneering work in collaboration with the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland (EPFL). Far reaching research on Brain Machine Interface (BMI) systems by scientists at EPFL already allows disabled users to manoeuvre their wheelchairs by thought transference alone. The next stage is to adapt the BMI processes to the car – and driver – of the future. This development happens in the crossroads of the areas of human machine interaction and interfacing, neurophysiology and predictive computing. (via Nissan teams up with EPFL for futurist car interfaces)
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Nissan is working with scientists to research the possible use of a brain interface in order to give the car information about intentions so that it can predict and prepare for the next actions a driver will take.

Nissan is undertaking this pioneering work in collaboration with the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland (EPFL). Far reaching research on Brain Machine Interface (BMI) systems by scientists at EPFL already allows disabled users to manoeuvre their wheelchairs by thought transference alone. The next stage is to adapt the BMI processes to the car – and driver – of the future.
This development happens in the crossroads of the areas of human machine interaction and interfacing, neurophysiology and predictive computing. (via Nissan teams up with EPFL for futurist car interfaces)

Source: actu.epfl.ch

Toyota aims for quake-proof supply chain | Reuters

We can talk about scenario planning in order to see, understand and manage uncertainty on a longer term planning level but when it comes running the daily business the result of the process i e how we design companies and structures will be the crucial point for the future.

I am again talking about the need to redesign society and businesses and build resilient and shock-managing, rather than slim, lean, efficient and just-in-time structures. Or maybe they can be slim, lean, efficient and just-in-time, but ONLY of these properties are helping organizations to be better at managing dramatic and sudden changes. Otherwise this mental heritage (or garbage) of efficiency and just-in-time thinking from an obsolete industrial age will lead to a certain death when the grim reaper of unexpected shocks or changes comes to take his tribute.

The signs of change comes from Toyota who seems to maintain it’s thought leader position when it comes to taking the next level of industrial development into the area of resilience…

Based on the terrible experience of the Japanese earthquake Toyota are now aiming at change their manufacturing and supplier structures with these three steps:

  1. Standardizing parts - so Japanese automakers could share components manufactured in different locations
  2. Increase supplier inventories - so the outsourced delivery of components will be able to deliver parts longer and not so fast be victims of sudden shortages of material
  3. Making each region independent - i e procurement of components are local so a disaster somewhere would not affect production overseas 

This is really interesting but it is worth noting it is just a part of the solution and just from the perspective of the manufacturing plant. There are much more work to do in order to make the whole value process around the automotive industry resilient and future ready. 

But from a longer term strategic perspective, taking this path, or rather being forced to go down it, could turn out to be as important for the long term future success of Japanese auto manufacturers, as the collective Japanese decision to decrease fuel consumption was in the 1980:s.

Are the Japanese again using their problems and tragedies in order to improve before everybody else does?

Read more in Reuter article.