As everything in life, we aim to facilitate the daily routine, stretch our days to the maximum and achieve the perfect life-work balance.
Some advocate such thing does not exist, that with our ever-connected lives there is a blur line between personal and professional life, but we still want to spend time with our other half, our children, socialize with friends and find some time to improve ourselves through knowledge, hobbies and personal time. So, every little helps when trying to maximize our time.
Technology is the greatest enabler of time maximization; We now can communicate almost anywhere with anyone due to our mobile phones – we can exchange information, check emails, social media, manage our schedule and do more within the same amount of time.
Still, commuting is one of the biggest drag in productivity since we are either on a plane or train, where there is often no reliable connectivity, potentially in a noisy and rather uncomfortable or unfamiliar place to manage our daily affairs. Yet, for those who commute by car, it is impossible to conduct other activities if you are the driver.
“People are not buying cars as they used to, since some commercial products offered by auto dealers, financial companies or manufacturers allow us to partially purchase our vehicles for a determined time and then exchange it for a newer model once the deal term is over – such as PCH (Purchase Contract Hire) or PCP (Personal Contract Purchase).”
This brings us to the use of technology and how things talk to each other (IoT).
Vehicles are getting smarter and we already have some examples of self-driving cars going on live trials on our roads. In the near future, you will be able to have your car pick you up at a location of your choice, autonomously drive you to your destination, carry-on with other duties or activities, pick you again at a location you specified and drive you to your next destination.
How does this happen?
Already newer vehicles can interact with your mobile phone, with some smart roads and public services available in selected locations. This allows the car to use your mobile phone’s GPS (if the vehicle doesn’t have a Cellular Network Enabled one already embedded) and retrieve your itinerary, find the most optimized route, use your playlist to entertain you according to your preferences, allow you to use hands-free calling, learn about congestion or obstructions, notify you if you’ll be running late amongst may other possibilities – and that’s available right now!
“New services are appearing all over the world that allow vehicles to be rented by usage (pay-as-you-go), so there is no need to own a car, just use an app to locate the nearest available vehicle and pay only for the time/mileage you use.”
Looking to the Future
It may be possible to not even own a vehicle, just use an app on your mobile or tablet to schedule the daily usage of a service that provides a self-driving vehicle to you and the commute may not only be safer and faster, but you can use the time to deal with your daily attributions in a comfort and familiar environment.
The Car is Dead. Long live the Self-Driving Car!