At CES Asia, Hyundai showed an autonomous concept car, joining a slew of other auto makers working on the technology. More interesting is Hyundai’s thoughts on what we’ll all be doing in the future when the cars are driving themselves.
This photo is from Hyundai’s booth at CES Asia shows 2 passengers strapped into their seats wearing VR headsets. There’s been a lot of experimentation around the idea of what happens inside a vehicle when humans aren’t burdened with the current responsibilities of driving and operating the vehicle. Other auto makers have experimented with concepts of having passenger seats that rotate and would allow 4 or more passengers to talk to each other.
It looks like Hyundai believes we’ll either be entertained by, or working in Virtual Reality instead. How would it feel to be in VR, travelling a vehicle at a different speed than you’re actually travelling in the car you’re in? Did we just create a new motion problem, or is the audio visual sensory takeover so good that we really do forget about the real-world motion.. if so, how do we get alerted we’re at our destination ? Are cars going to include a PC in the boot or under your seat that not only replaces your heater, but is powerful enough to run VR for multiple occupants?
Make no mistake about it, humans will freak out when cars start driving themselves and shielding their eyes from what’s happening around them is certainly an idea worth entertaining. If you’re in for a long road trip, I know I’d certainly rather be immersed in a game than watching the grassy fields fly by hour after our. If you’re on your daily commute for an hour each morning, you may like to chill out with some Netflix or if you’re running late for work, remotely connect to the office and get started on your work.
The possibilities are enormous here and while it may seem like there’s a long road ahead before we really decide as a society how our surplus autonomous time will be used, those lucky enough to afford a Tesla may have to deal with this (admittedly very 1st world) problem of time as soon as next year. Most autonomous technology is scheduled for 2020/2021 depending on the auto maker.
Photo credit UPS Asia Pacific.
A road demonstration of the Hyundai Ioniq was actually shown off at CES in January this year, which you can see is fairly evolved.
