Looking at cars like the Mini, Beetle, PT Cruiser and Ford Thunderbird, you would think that we were living in the sixties. Well to some extent we are. People are longing for simpler times, when roads were empty and driving was a pleasure not a chore. As a result everything from cars and petrol stations to classic car magazines have focussed on bye-gone eras. But perhaps this particular automotive trend is coming to an end as manufacturers are re-discovering their local roots. Ever since car companies went global and ever since they started using computers rather than pencils to design cars, cars have looked remarkably similar. This wasn’t always the case. Once upon a time a British car could only have been made in Britain and the same was true with cars from the US, Germany, Italy and France. They just looked and smelled whence they came. However, global markets, CAD software and focus groups changed all that. Not anymore. Car companies are re-discovering their roots and the new Mustang, Cadillac CTS and STS could only be made by Uncle Sam. Equally the new Infiniti Kuraza concept car could only have come from Japan. Is this an early sign of the end of global products or just a clever case of ‘glocalisation’?

Most people in cities want access to a car but some people can’t afford to own one. More likely, people that own a car don’t have anywhere safe to put it at night and sometimes they need a different type of car. So what if a retailer with some car parking spaces teamed up with a car sharing business and allowed customers to pick up and drop off cars in their car parks outside peak hours? If you’re not already familiar with car sharing clubs they’re already a US $15 million market in the US which is expected to grow10-fold in the next 5 years. In Switzerland 2% of drivers already use such schemes while in the UK car clubs like Smart Moves lend cars to people for about GB £15 per month. Servicing, breakdown recovery and road taxes are all included and users just pay about GB £3 per hour plus GB £0.18 per mile.

Back in the 1960s GM experimented with cars that followed a magnetic strip in the highway while in 1997, 8 Buick Le Sabres travelled in line at 65mph and 21 feet apart with no driver input whatsoever. More recently, Toyota has been testing the PM concept car, which travels around in ‘social groups’ with other cars. We’re not suggesting that ‘drive by wire’ will take over completely, but you can expect the driver to be an almost redundant feature by about 2030. Benefits will include greater safety and reduced fuel consumption.

Electronic Data Recorders (EDR’s) are little black boxes that covertly sit inside some cars (eg all new GM, Mercedes and Audi) and monitor your speed, acceleration and braking amongst other things. When you have an accident the data contained in these boxes can be used by police or your insurance company to see who did what. If that’s not bad enough how about what networkcar.com is doing? This company allows people to remotely track their car when they’re not in it. So, for example, you can tell (via your computer) where your husband is or what speed your daughter is driving — without alerting him or her to the fact you’re watching them. There’s even an idea being studied by police in the UK whereby they will be able to stop cars simply by pressing a button (an electronic ‘stinger’ in effect)

‘Pay as you go’ is a well documented trend which, along with the division of some products and services into free (or cheap) and paid (or luxury) segments is transforming society. So if ‘economy’ and ‘business’ works for airlines, and ‘public’ or ‘private’ works for medicine and education, why not apply the same principle to roads? This is what’s happening all over the world with congestion charges to enter city centres and now it’s happening with roads which are being divided into free and paid sections. The idea is a mixture of social engineering and civil engineering. Fast lanes are being converted into paid lanes, which motorists can move into if they’re in a hurry or they’re just plain rich (‘Lexus lanes’ as some people describe them). The clever bit is that the paid lanes are not compulsory and pricing can be adjusted according to traffic flow or time of day. Payment is made instantly via electronic tags inside your car. Of course the idea isn’t new. Road tolls have been around since the invention of the motor car (longer in fact) but the idea is coming back into vogue because governments are no longer prepared to publicly finance infrastructure projects like roads. In the case of new roads this is fine, but the principle is also being applied to roads that have already been built using public money – so people are effectively paying twice. Nevertheless, the idea is sure to be a winner because people hate to wait (Americans now spend 46 hours a year sitting in traffic jams). The average speed during peak hours on ‘91 Express’ lanes in the US is 65mph compared to just 15-20mph in the free lanes. So by paying US $11 commuters can save as much as 90 minutes on a regular trip. On a slightly related note, GPS tracking technology is about to transform how people pay for car insurance. If an insurance company knows where you are in real time, risk can be assessed accordingly, allowing drivers to pay for insurance by the mile.