Cars : The future is flexible

Abstract: Cars have been around for over a century and have grown to become an essential part of society with an increasing number of different models being sold and developed each year. Car manufacturers steadily expand the offered product portfolio and invent new market niches constantly. Often, this is not done to meet the customers’ expectations but rather to match and rival a competitor’s model lineup. The increase in model variety results in a significant increase in the complexity of production and manufacturing, more difficult and demanding work surrounding employees, and massive negative impacts on the environment. Not only are cars unsustainable in the way they are used, but also in the way they are produced. For a more sustainable future of and with cars to be possible, this practice of product portfolio expansion needs to be critically analyzed. It is, in my eyes, additionally necessary to evaluate the essence of the car industry, the car itself, and to re-think what defines a car. This paper critically analyzes the car industry and the production and development of cars, and it proposes an alternative to standard car design based on the idea and ability of speculative and critical design to highlight issues of today. The proposed concept is a speculative design alternative to car design, aiming to put sustainability and the customers back into the focus of car development, and discover what is possible, rather than probable, in the future of cars. The proposed concept aims at changing the understanding of cars and turns the car from being fixed and immutable into alterable and changeable objects, depending on the use-case and user. By analyzing manufacturing procedures and future trends, and interviewing experts from various disciplines, insights are used to evaluate the proposed alternative.