Your Car, 2022

But fuel cells and storage containers for the hydrogen they run on are still too bulky, as are the computer controls for drive-by-wire systems. The working prototype of the Autonomy that will be unveiled later this year will be about 11 inches thick, almost twice the desired dimension. Still, engineers at GM and elsewhere are confident that work is advancing quickly enough that within 20 years the roads will be filled with radically redesigned cars like the Autonomy. Those cars will be produced by a completely altered auto industry, in which traditional engine building will wane and new technology suppliers will rise. In developing the Autonomy, GM turned not only to traditional automotive suppliers, but also to a company that specializes in electrical generation for submarines and another with expertise in hydrogen storage tanks.


GM has competition in the race to reinvent. Ford, DaimlerChrysler, Honda, and Toyota are also developing drive-by-wire and fuel cell systems. And though they have not articulated a vision as specific as GM's Autonomy, they, too, see radical change ahead. "By the time the current generation of young designers retire, they quite possibly could see the last of the internal combustion engine," says Ed Golden, executive director of Ford's North American design operations. "They will probably create vehicles that are more significant and different than anything current designers like me will do in our careers."


What makes the Autonomy approach so intriguing is that it would allow drivers to own several car bodies for just one skateboard, then alter the layout and look of their vehicles according to the dictates of lifestyle or mood. (A reality that would also transform the marketplace: Would a GM skateboard accept only GM bodies, or also third-party hardware? GM envisions the skateboard forming the platform not just for a few car models, but for dozens of models globally, changing the economics of production.) Each body would snap on to the Autonomy base, and its interior technology-controls, power, heating, and cooling-would connect to the chassis through a docking port on the platform. A family might own a commuter sedan body and a sport or SUV body for weekends or vacations, then buy a specially configured body so that, for example, a newly disabled family member could roll a wheelchair directly into the driving position. A notion like this has implications for another great American institution, the two-car garage-or perhaps the bodies would be stored at depots for quick installation. Within a given car body there would also be flexibility: Passenger and even driver seat positions could be moved; a car could be turned into a mobile office, even a mobile bedroom. Some of this seems fanciful, but when you clear the decks above the skateboard, the possibilities are astounding.


Before unveiling the Autonomy, GM held an internal contest to see what kinds of attachable auto bodies its designers could come up with. We decided to take a similar route, asking two independent design firms to brainstorm new configurations for the car of the future, based on the Autonomy concept. We encouraged the firms not only to play with interior configurations, but to fundamentally alter the architecture of the automobile, creating vehicles that are not only innovative but functional. Prisma Design International of Tustin, California, responded with a novel SUV and adjustable-bed pickup; Aria-Group of Irvine, California, conceived a snap-on sports car and a sedan.