I have Tesla Cybertrucks driving around my neighborhood. The gulf between the desired aesthetic (e.g., how it's shown in marketing materials) and how it looks in real life is massive. It has some terrible angles that make it look squat and ungainly from certain vantage points, and any dirt or wear immediately looks incongruous on its flat panels. Its geometry is in open rebellion against reality (and maybe beauty), so it's notable in that regard at least.
I think the reference to Fordism is telling. Perhaps Apple realised that trying to develop and refine the private car is the equivalent of Ford's "faster horses". The future of transport, at least urban transport, will not be defined by better, shinier, more efficient, more automated private cars - it will be defined by a combination of mass-mobility and micro-mobility. Instead of looking for innovation in the private car sector, look for it in public transport, e-bikes, cargo bikes etc - this is where we are more likely to see innovative products that will have longevity.
I haven’t followed the Apple Car that closely but the rumour I heard was that it was impossible to make a fully self-driving vehicle because of the limitations of AI driving. Just as the iPhone didn’t have a keyboard, imagine a car without a steering wheel. Ironically, the sense of being in control of something larger than yourself is an appeal of driving so it would have fed in to the passive future.
Wessie, very interesting. There is something depressing about the ascendancy of the digital over the material, of computer design and engineering over old fashioned design and engineering of stuff. So maybe things have more "Pathos"? I certainly feel that.
But in the world we have, I'm not entirely sure it's an entirely bad thing for national and even global political economies to continue their march into the digital ether. Maybe people, in the sense of folks, will be left with gardens, sports, even crafts. I know a number of very wealthy people who have become woodworkers. Would it be altogether bad if the pace of material transformation of ordinary lives continued to slow, and we sort of enjoyed that?
I have Tesla Cybertrucks driving around my neighborhood. The gulf between the desired aesthetic (e.g., how it's shown in marketing materials) and how it looks in real life is massive. It has some terrible angles that make it look squat and ungainly from certain vantage points, and any dirt or wear immediately looks incongruous on its flat panels. Its geometry is in open rebellion against reality (and maybe beauty), so it's notable in that regard at least.
I think the reference to Fordism is telling. Perhaps Apple realised that trying to develop and refine the private car is the equivalent of Ford's "faster horses". The future of transport, at least urban transport, will not be defined by better, shinier, more efficient, more automated private cars - it will be defined by a combination of mass-mobility and micro-mobility. Instead of looking for innovation in the private car sector, look for it in public transport, e-bikes, cargo bikes etc - this is where we are more likely to see innovative products that will have longevity.
Great post.
I haven’t followed the Apple Car that closely but the rumour I heard was that it was impossible to make a fully self-driving vehicle because of the limitations of AI driving. Just as the iPhone didn’t have a keyboard, imagine a car without a steering wheel. Ironically, the sense of being in control of something larger than yourself is an appeal of driving so it would have fed in to the passive future.
Wessie, very interesting. There is something depressing about the ascendancy of the digital over the material, of computer design and engineering over old fashioned design and engineering of stuff. So maybe things have more "Pathos"? I certainly feel that.
But in the world we have, I'm not entirely sure it's an entirely bad thing for national and even global political economies to continue their march into the digital ether. Maybe people, in the sense of folks, will be left with gardens, sports, even crafts. I know a number of very wealthy people who have become woodworkers. Would it be altogether bad if the pace of material transformation of ordinary lives continued to slow, and we sort of enjoyed that?