The Future of Electric Vehicle and The World With No Privacy

dual cockpit car
Illustration of a dual cockpit car.

The future of electric vehicle is rosy and exciting, but not without concerns – I wrote “Welcome to the World Without Privacy back on Nov 16, 2015 and now is getting worse. In Hollywood movies where people want to have privacy – they often sit and talk inside the car – yes, those days are gone. You will be constantly monitored when you are inside and around the car. Those who fight for user privacy will be dead and the young ones (digital generation) won’t care. You can kiss your privacy goodbye and embrace convenience. I hope not.

We all know someday in the near future most of us will be driving an EV (Electric Vehicle). The street will be much quieter, the air fresher and less accidents due to radar driver assistance installed in every car. No more car theft and car jack due to multiple security-related cameras and trackers installed in the car. Insurance premium is based on the driving style algorithm.

And one would think that it would drive the cost of the car down due to efficiency, but no, it won’t. It will be just like today’s smartphone. The price is increasing due to chip scarcity and the cost of increasing R&D for new technology. However, this dual cockpit vehicle will streamline the manufacturing process. Car manufacturers would be able to produce one global car for both left and right hand drive markets.

Imagine there are no more steering wheels and in the center there is an ergonomics joystick that can be controlled from the left and right seat. No more gas and brake pedal. Accelerating and braking are simply controlled by the joystick.. The driver speedometer can be swapped from left to right and vice versa. This is going to be fun, a long distance road trip would be so comfortable.

Irwan Hartanto

Autonomous vehicles will reach their pinnacle, but who is it for? Do you think we will give up control and let the car drive itself? I’d like to have the fun of controlling and accelerating my vehicle. However, one vehicle for the whole family has become relevant – I could drive to the office, then the vehicle autonomously go home and send my kids to school, then pick up my wife for groceries, while she was shopping, the car picked up my kids from school and drove them home. And at 5pm the car is waiting for me in the office to get me home. All you have to do is to give access to all family members’ personal calendars. The EV computer will take care of it.

The car of the future will be mostly electronic, the only mechanical being the motor and the wheels. It is much more complex and needs a vigorous test before release on each software update. We should be able to entrust our loved ones with autonomy, aren’t we?

It is a wonderful concept with the great sacrifice of user privacy. Welcome to the new world, the world with no privacy.

Change is the only constant

Heraclitus

Founder and CEO of YesDok (Telemedicine) and Skin Mystery (Smart Skincare and Cosmetics)