Car Futures: how will our favourite mode of travel change?
The Rolls Royce Electric Car
The car as we know it is changing. Driven by economic and environmental concerns the traditional petroleum-fuelled vehicle is being reshaped and redesigned to accommodate a range of new technologies, including fuel-cell energy, electric power and advanced control systems. In addition, vehicle infrastructure integration is developing fast, and new forms of car for urban living are being designed. How will these changes shape the cars of the future, and their place in society and culture?
To debate these important changes the ITC hosted a special evening on 28th June, welcoming more than 40 senior experts from the automotive, design, engineering, technology, academic, civil service and safety sectors. Kris Beuret OBE chaired a panel of experts comprising design critic and author Stephen Bayley, technology expert Professor Rob Thring, and safety guru John Dawson, who each floated ideas on different aspects of the future of the car.
Design guru Stephen Bayley entertains the audience
In his flamboyant style, Stephen Bayley drew attention to the importance of the car as a cultural and social icon. As the key means of private transport in the twentieth century, the car is for many people their introduction to the world of movement, mechanics, and power, while at the same time retaining important functions as markers of status and liberty. Future technologies, he noted, need not result in ugly, functional machines; indeed, without the need for fuel tanks and heavy cooling systems designers have more freedom to use their imaginations. However, the decline of the internal combustion engine, with its heat, noise and dirt, would alter our relationship with the vehicle.