Your Car, 2022

Designers are buzzing about the potential versatility of the Autonomy-especially when it comes to interiors. "The task of driving is different at different points in the day or in one's life," says Jaron Rothkop, a senior industrial designer at Lear Corp., an automotive interiors supplier. The Autonomy yields a car that can evolve to a much more profound degree than aftermarket add-ons have ever made possible.


Drive-by-wire technology, meanwhile, would enable the steering wheel to become an aircraft-type control yoke or a joystick, if that were desired by some drivers. Whatever the device, it would not need to be attached to a conventional steering column and could, potentially, be docked in several places about the car. John Phillips, director of industrial design and advanced product development at Lear, suggests it could be pulled down from the ceiling when required and hidden away (a security plus) when the car was stationary and doubling as a living or working space. When traveling alone, the driver could sit in the center of the vehicle, for increased safety in case of a collision; side- or rear-view cameras would provide a full range of vision. A British motorist who drove frequently to France on business could shift his position from right to left and back again. The absence of an engine compartment, meanwhile, could make cars safer, with new room for crash-absorbing material in front of the driver.


There is work to be done, of course, before the skateboard is ready for prime time. That work starts with the fuel cell. Fuel cells have come a long way since 1994, when Daimler-Benz unveiled a van whose fuel cell stacks and hydrogen tanks were so large they consumed the majority of the space inside. Ford, BMW, Volkswagen, Honda, and most of the other big carmakers either have experimental fuel cell vehicles on the road, or will have them there soon. But no fuel-storage system as compact as that required by the skateboard is in view; if the skateboard is 6 inches thick, the tanks will have to be mere inches high. Liquid hydrogen requires thick, insulated tanks that can maintain the fuel at 253