Autonomous sleeping cabins are the dystopian future we must stop

In 2015, I was invited to Volvo’s design studio to see an early concept for its first self-driving vehicle. The studio is 50 miles from downtown Los Angeles, where I live, and very close to an Amtrak station, so I took the train. From the reaction I got when I arrived, you would have thought I just hopped off the hyperloop from Mars.

The Swedish automakers in town to show off their work were shocked that I had gotten there using transit. In fact, at least one designer I talked to, who was supposed to be working on solutions for Southern California’s transportation crisis, didn’t even know that trains served this part of the LA region.

My trip took a little over an hour, and I got there faster than some people coming from other parts of LA who got stuck in the 101 freeway’s notorious traffic. As I started writing my article on the way home—which I could do because I was riding on a train—I looked at the freeway gridlocked below me and wondered how a self-driving car could possibly improve upon this particular journey. A train was clearly the most efficient way to travel.

Three years later, Volvo’s 360c is a real car —or, rather, it’s still a concept, but Volvo built an actual car to show what it could do. It has a fridge and a bar. And a sink with a faucet where you can brush your teeth. The seating configuration shifts into different modes for entertainment or work… or sleep.

Yes, it’s got a fold-out bed.

“The sleeping cabin allows you to enjoy premium comfort and peaceful travel through the night and wake up refreshed at your destination,” Volvo chief strategist Mårten Levenstam said in a statement. “It could enable us to compete with the world’s leading aircraft […]

Continue reading – Autonomous sleeping cabins are the dystopian future we must stop