Name: How Self-Driving Technology Is Reshaping Car Design
Uploaded: 2023-12-14T10:27:00Z
Duration: 8 min 1 s
Description: As autonomous driving technology becomes more mainstream, automakers like Waymo and Geely are beginning to make key decisions about the designs of their next generation vehicles. WSJ’s George Downs explores how the car is set to evolve when drivers no longer need to be behind the wheel. Illustration: George Downs/The Wall Street Journal

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As autonomous driving technology becomes more mainstream, automakers like Waymo and Geely are beginning to make key decisions about the designs of their next generation vehicles. WSJ’s George Downs explores how the car is set to evolve when drivers no longer need to be behind the wheel. Illustration: George Downs/The Wall Street Journal

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How Self-Driving Technology Is Reshaping Car Design

George: We've been talking about what the car of the future could look like pretty much since it was first invented.

Reporter: The bubble car of the future.

Yet despite some pretty wild ideas, the principle design of the car's interior remains pretty much unchanged. Seats facing forwards, a windsheild, dashboard controls and a steering wheel. But recently, something pretty big has come along that could for once fundamentally change how this is designed. Autonomous driving. While the tech is still relatively new, there are already companies out there operating driverless vehicles on our streets. And so now designers are beginning to make crucial decisions about what their next generation vehicles will look like if you are not behind the wheel.

There is potential for vehicle design to change drastically.

So what does the car of the future look like? Let's find out. Okay, we're gonna use my car to look at how autonomy could disrupt the areas that are fundamental to how we currently drive. Oh, and the steering wheel is on this side 'cause I'm in the UK. Let's start with the seat, because if I'm not driving, then I could be doing well pretty much anything. And that could change how this is designed, which begs the question-

What would you do with that newfound freedom or newfound time?

George: That's Toshi Fujimura, Head of Industrial Design at robotaxi company, Waymo. He's had a lot of input into the design of this vehicle, Waymo's next generation robotaxi. See, while some car companies have an existing car design that they're trying to make autonomous, Waymo is coming at things differently. It has driven more autonomous miles than pretty much every automaker. And now it's working with Chinese automaker Geely to figure out what its vehicle should look like. And it's Toshi's job to think about how people will be using autonomous vehicles in the future.

How would you provide comfort and what activities you might engage in? Like entertainment is clearly one, and I think sleeping is obviously another. Are you gonna try to recline? Are you trying to face someone else? And what is the interior setup that enables it?

George: The idea of campfire seating where the front seats can face backwards has been around for years. Like in this 2015 Mercedes-Benz concept. The problem is that configuration isn't ideal in a crash.

Now all of a sudden we're turning these seats. What does that mean for how these seat seatbelts and airbags are gonna protect you?

George: That's Raul Arbelaez, Vice President for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety Vehicle Research Center. He's a man who has seen a lot of car crashes.

There is a huge chance for occupant to occupant contact. If two heads collide during a crash, that could be a very severe injury.

George: Waymo told me that's just one of the reasons why for now at least, its next generation vehicle still features seats that face forwards. And Mercedes-Benz told me that while its current level of autonomous driving means that the driver needs to face forwards and take the wheel when required that the company hopes to roll out its more advanced level of autonomous driving by the end of the decade. But what about building a live flatbed to sleep in? Oh, that's better. After all, wouldn't it be great to get into an autonomous vehicle at the end of the day, catch up on some sleep and wake up in the morning at your new destination? Well, again, that doesn't work in a crash.

If you are lying flat with that same seatbelt configuration, that shoulder belt portion is completely off of your body and floating in the air above you and the lap portion is not going to restrict the forward motion of your body. In the future, if you do wanna lie flat, you may have to be in such a cocoon structure that you may not want to sleep for very long.

Now, you may be wondering why we're worried about crashes at all. After all, isn't driverless technology supposed to make driving safer?

Even if your vehicle's fully autonomous for many, many years, they're going to be vehicles driven that will crash into you.

But let's say we address some of those safety concerns. If we're gonna start changing the layout of the seats, we're gonna need to get this out of the way. After all, we're not gonna be needing it, right? Well, some automakers have envisaged the future where the wheel is removed while the car is in driverless mode, but can reappear when somebody wants to drive, like in Audi's 2021 grandsphere concept car. And in Waymo and Geely's vehicle, they've removed the wheel altogether. But making that a reality could take a while.

Obviously, we do want to remove the steering wheel. So we are kind of looking at it and saying, "Okay, so what does it take to get here? What are the solutions to not having a steering wheel?" Kind of like a phone comparison would be the keyboard. There was physical buttons, but then one day touchscreens show up.

George: Now in some ways, it's easy for Waymo to decide to remove the wheel because it's a robotaxi service. You weren't going to be doing the driving anyway. But when it comes to removing the wheel from personally owned cars like mine, the road ahead could be far more challenging.

For us to get to a place where that technology is ready to go, the laws have been amended to allow for it, and consumers have the trust, that's gonna be tough. And all of our phones also have not a physical keyboard, but a touchscreen keyboard.

George: Audi told me that it was convinced that specific use cases for autonomous driving systems would only become established after 2030. What about the future of the dashboard? Right now, your car's dashboard is dual purpose in that it serves infotainment, information and entertainment. The information is there for a reason.

There are regulations on what information needs to be provided back to the driver. Warning lights, turn signals, speed.

George: Raul told me that if the car is driving itself, there's no legal reason why that information would need to be displayed to anyone. But at Waymo, there's a different reason why information would still need to be shared with occupants.

There's a lot of communication between what is the vehicle doing and kind of reassuring that the rider, it's kind of a passive communication that really gives trust to the riders.

Now, when it comes to entertainment, this little screen isn't ideal for watching films on, but automakers are running another space that could be perfect for displaying entertainment. The windsheild. In January, 2023, BMW unveiled its i Vision Dee concept car, which featured an augmented reality slider, which turned the windsheild from a simple display into, well, this psychedelic experience. Other car manufacturers have also heavily hinted that AR windshields could play a part in their future. And I get it. Imagine sitting back and watching your favorite content while the car drives you from A to B. Waymo, however, have steered away from displaying entertainment on their windsheild and instead have placed small monitors around the vehicle.

There's three of these screens, two in the back, one in the front.

George: And the company says there's a good reason why.

The window is definitely a big one, where if you don't have an ability to see kind of further out into the distance, people do tend to get motion sickness.

George: Now, motion sickness could be more of an issue for Waymo because the company has been operating in cities where there's lots of braking, acceleration and sharp turns. And for now, BMW says it's focusing on a heads up display that will only take up a small portion of the windsheild. But as autonomous vehicles begin to do longer, straighter journeys on highways, that could change. After all, I can quite happily sit and watch a film on a plane without feeling ill.

That's where you really start to think, what are people gonna do for a whole hour?

So what does the autonomous car of the future look like? Well, the answer to that depends on how much we learn to trust autonomous software and in-car safety. In order for our seats to face any direction other than forwards, we're going to have to trust the airbag technology, seat seatbelts, and regulations all advance enough to keep us safe in a crash. In order for us to be able to watch entertainment while on the road, we're going to need to trust that the car won't crash at all. And in order for the steering wheel to disappear, we're going to have to trust that we won't need it ever. But here's the thing, trust in autonomous driving technology is actually lower than it's been in recent years. So it seems that many of us, for now at least, will want to keep our hands firmly on the wheel.

How Autonomous Driving Is Reshaping the Car

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How Autonomous Driving Is Reshaping the Car

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