during my last year of graduate school
in architecture the urban design studio
that I was a part of decided to take on
a competition we were tasked with
designing an autonomous vehicle now
we’ve all heard of autonomous or
self-driving cars they have an auto mode
in which they’re allowed to guide
themselves in to perform driving
functions you’re not accelerating or
necessarily turning the wheel yourself
but you’re ready to take control should
you need to
these are autonomous cars today but
that’s not what we were tasked with
designing let me take you 15 20 hours
into the future you step into your car
and there’s no steering wheel in fact
there’s no such thing as a driver’s seat
you’re a passenger we’re all passengers
and your car takes you wherever you need
to go all by itself
sounds pretty wonderful or us doesn’t it
well my team and I we were very fast to
fall in love with this idea and to fall
in love with all the things that we
could do inside the car while it takes
us places having breakfast taking a nap
watching the game calling her along
doing the homework we forgot what’s due
that day regardless of our motivations
we were very inspired and excited so we
started researching sketching designing
vehicles of all shapes sizes and colors
of course with all these activities in
mind we were thinking coffee makers
inside the car coffee room conference
room settings for those who wanted to
work we’re thinking beds TVs mini bars
all sorts of things but a few weeks into
the competition we had to take a step
back we gained some distance from the
projects that we had become so attached
to and this allowed us to look at things
from a different point of view we
started asking ourselves what happens
when you’re not inside the car this is
when we realized the impact that
autonomous cars can have in our lives
your car can grow grocery shopping for
you it could pick up your dry cleaning
take your kids to school
or to that movie theater all the way
across town autonomous vehicles can
bring freedom of transportation to a
whole new level entire groups of people
like the elderly or the disabled will no
longer be limited by their physical
capabilities people of all ages will be
able to go places
forget about being old enough to drive
or studying for your test my kids might
not even know what the DMV is if it’s
still around they probably won’t know
how to drive simply because they won’t
need to autonomous cars will also make
our transportation system a lot more
efficient because they will have the
ability to communicate with each other
and to sense their surroundings let me
give you an example of why this is
important today we have yield signs not
quite a stop sign you slow down you
check if there’s any vehicles coming and
if you need to you stop or you slow your
speed so that the approaching vehicle
can come you yield your right-of-way to
the approaching vehicle well if this was
in the future and we were talking about
two autonomous cars the situation would
go a little bit differently your car
will let the other one know hey I’m
coming I’ll be there in 30 4.7 seconds
and the approaching vehicle will take
note of that and will adjust the speed
let’s say two miles per hour so that at
the point of intersection the vehicles
don’t collide instead one will pass just
before the other now imagine a street
with no yield signs no stop signs no
street lights almost no kind of signage
cars will know where to turn and want to
do so they will know when the road is
curvy ahead they will know the weather
speed limits all of it and the best part
of an efficient transportation system no
traffic so let’s say today you wake up
at 5:30 in the morning to get ready get
your kids ready take them to school and
drive all the way across town to go to
work we’ve probably 20 to 30 minutes of
traffic along the way in the future you
might be able to sleep an extra hour get
your kids ready
and send them to school safely well your
car takes care of that you can take a
shower get dressed and just when you’re
about ready your car will be back to
pick you up and you will enjoy breakfast
on your way to work cars will change the
way that we live our lives but that’s
just a start because while you’re
sipping on coffee on your way to the
office you might not recognize the
streets that you’re driving through if
that’s the correct word autonomous cars
will have the power to change them
autonomous cars will have the power to
change the cities we live in think about
what you see when you step outside your
house streets sidewalks parking lots we
live in cities that are designed around
cars and around cars as we know them
today having a human driver makes a
difference because it introduces human
error which changes the way in which we
use space lanes for example need to be a
certain width to accommodate for the
fact that we’re not gonna drive our cars
perfectly straight the lane doesn’t meet
the sidewalk directly there is a certain
distance in between there are many
factors that need to be taken into
account so that we don’t make mistakes
behind the wheel or to prevent them as
much as we can and prevent accidents but
when you take the human factor out of
the equation our streets will be safer
but these spatial considerations can
also go away lanes don’t need to be as
wide which can lead to less lanes and
with an efficient transportation system
we might be able to eliminate entire
streets but let me tell you what’s gonna
bring the biggest change we’re gonna
gain time and freedom in ways we only
wish we had today but we’re not the only
ones gaining freedom if you think about
it your car doesn’t depend on you to go
places anymore yes this means that it
can run errands for you but while it’s
not doing that
it doesn’t need to wait for you it
doesn’t need to stay parked waiting for
you all day at school or at work so well
we need parking lots in the middle of
downtown areas for
we might not need parking garages at all
except for in our homes in case you were
wondering we didn’t win the competition
we submitted maps drawings everything we
needed to but we didn’t design a car we
focused on its impact which actually
almost got us disqualified
it was a hard fall but it led me to
sharing the story today and it led me to
open my eyes we all need to start
looking in thinking about technologies
differently we need to start seeing
beyond the car to call your smartphone a
phone is to miss most of what it is most
of what it does its emitting how it’s
influenced our lives to think that the
autonomous car will be simply a car is
to miss how it can change how we live
our lives and where we live today in our
world cars demand a significant amount
of space half of urban American cities
are dedicated to the car but what
happens when all of these spaces can be
reclaimed again when the parking garage
next to your office becomes a mixed-use
residential and commercial building and
the street over becomes a community
center or a farmers market when miles of
asphalt and concrete become public parks
and highways which rip through the heart
of our cities today become vibrant
strolling parks that overlook a less
congested and healthier city we will
step outside of our homes and we won’t
see a city designer on cars we will live
in a city designed for people thank you you
in architecture the urban design studio
that I was a part of decided to take on
a competition we were tasked with
designing an autonomous vehicle now
we’ve all heard of autonomous or
self-driving cars they have an auto mode
in which they’re allowed to guide
themselves in to perform driving
functions you’re not accelerating or
necessarily turning the wheel yourself
but you’re ready to take control should
you need to
these are autonomous cars today but
that’s not what we were tasked with
designing let me take you 15 20 hours
into the future you step into your car
and there’s no steering wheel in fact
there’s no such thing as a driver’s seat
you’re a passenger we’re all passengers
and your car takes you wherever you need
to go all by itself
sounds pretty wonderful or us doesn’t it
well my team and I we were very fast to
fall in love with this idea and to fall
in love with all the things that we
could do inside the car while it takes
us places having breakfast taking a nap
watching the game calling her along
doing the homework we forgot what’s due
that day regardless of our motivations
we were very inspired and excited so we
started researching sketching designing
vehicles of all shapes sizes and colors
of course with all these activities in
mind we were thinking coffee makers
inside the car coffee room conference
room settings for those who wanted to
work we’re thinking beds TVs mini bars
all sorts of things but a few weeks into
the competition we had to take a step
back we gained some distance from the
projects that we had become so attached
to and this allowed us to look at things
from a different point of view we
started asking ourselves what happens
when you’re not inside the car this is
when we realized the impact that
autonomous cars can have in our lives
your car can grow grocery shopping for
you it could pick up your dry cleaning
take your kids to school
or to that movie theater all the way
across town autonomous vehicles can
bring freedom of transportation to a
whole new level entire groups of people
like the elderly or the disabled will no
longer be limited by their physical
capabilities people of all ages will be
able to go places
forget about being old enough to drive
or studying for your test my kids might
not even know what the DMV is if it’s
still around they probably won’t know
how to drive simply because they won’t
need to autonomous cars will also make
our transportation system a lot more
efficient because they will have the
ability to communicate with each other
and to sense their surroundings let me
give you an example of why this is
important today we have yield signs not
quite a stop sign you slow down you
check if there’s any vehicles coming and
if you need to you stop or you slow your
speed so that the approaching vehicle
can come you yield your right-of-way to
the approaching vehicle well if this was
in the future and we were talking about
two autonomous cars the situation would
go a little bit differently your car
will let the other one know hey I’m
coming I’ll be there in 30 4.7 seconds
and the approaching vehicle will take
note of that and will adjust the speed
let’s say two miles per hour so that at
the point of intersection the vehicles
don’t collide instead one will pass just
before the other now imagine a street
with no yield signs no stop signs no
street lights almost no kind of signage
cars will know where to turn and want to
do so they will know when the road is
curvy ahead they will know the weather
speed limits all of it and the best part
of an efficient transportation system no
traffic so let’s say today you wake up
at 5:30 in the morning to get ready get
your kids ready take them to school and
drive all the way across town to go to
work we’ve probably 20 to 30 minutes of
traffic along the way in the future you
might be able to sleep an extra hour get
your kids ready
and send them to school safely well your
car takes care of that you can take a
shower get dressed and just when you’re
about ready your car will be back to
pick you up and you will enjoy breakfast
on your way to work cars will change the
way that we live our lives but that’s
just a start because while you’re
sipping on coffee on your way to the
office you might not recognize the
streets that you’re driving through if
that’s the correct word autonomous cars
will have the power to change them
autonomous cars will have the power to
change the cities we live in think about
what you see when you step outside your
house streets sidewalks parking lots we
live in cities that are designed around
cars and around cars as we know them
today having a human driver makes a
difference because it introduces human
error which changes the way in which we
use space lanes for example need to be a
certain width to accommodate for the
fact that we’re not gonna drive our cars
perfectly straight the lane doesn’t meet
the sidewalk directly there is a certain
distance in between there are many
factors that need to be taken into
account so that we don’t make mistakes
behind the wheel or to prevent them as
much as we can and prevent accidents but
when you take the human factor out of
the equation our streets will be safer
but these spatial considerations can
also go away lanes don’t need to be as
wide which can lead to less lanes and
with an efficient transportation system
we might be able to eliminate entire
streets but let me tell you what’s gonna
bring the biggest change we’re gonna
gain time and freedom in ways we only
wish we had today but we’re not the only
ones gaining freedom if you think about
it your car doesn’t depend on you to go
places anymore yes this means that it
can run errands for you but while it’s
not doing that
it doesn’t need to wait for you it
doesn’t need to stay parked waiting for
you all day at school or at work so well
we need parking lots in the middle of
downtown areas for
we might not need parking garages at all
except for in our homes in case you were
wondering we didn’t win the competition
we submitted maps drawings everything we
needed to but we didn’t design a car we
focused on its impact which actually
almost got us disqualified
it was a hard fall but it led me to
sharing the story today and it led me to
open my eyes we all need to start
looking in thinking about technologies
differently we need to start seeing
beyond the car to call your smartphone a
phone is to miss most of what it is most
of what it does its emitting how it’s
influenced our lives to think that the
autonomous car will be simply a car is
to miss how it can change how we live
our lives and where we live today in our
world cars demand a significant amount
of space half of urban American cities
are dedicated to the car but what
happens when all of these spaces can be
reclaimed again when the parking garage
next to your office becomes a mixed-use
residential and commercial building and
the street over becomes a community
center or a farmers market when miles of
asphalt and concrete become public parks
and highways which rip through the heart
of our cities today become vibrant
strolling parks that overlook a less
congested and healthier city we will
step outside of our homes and we won’t
see a city designer on cars we will live
in a city designed for people thank you you
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