The future is supposed to be cool, right? An improvement on the world of today, both technologically and aesthetically?
So self-driving cars will all look the part? Angular machines that look like a futuristic war pod on wheels? Something like that Lexus that Will Smith dicked about in during I. Robot?
Well not according to Next, a Silicony Valley startup (with no relation to high street fashion).
Their design for a self-driving electric car is a parallelogram - a tilted 2.5-ton box that can squeeze six seated and four standing passengers into its comfy interior. To improve the ride efficiency, the boxy carriages can join together, allowing passengers to move between pods.
There's also a floaty suspension system that will apparently help you "forget you are on the road" - which is okay, because you're not driving.
You wouldn't own a Next pod either; with its creator Tommaso Gecchelin envisaging the system working as an on-demand alternative to public transport, or with a fleet owned by private businesses. Here it is in action, with a gratuitous dubstep soundtrack to make it seem trendier...
Gecchelin believes that Next will be up functioning by 2020, but with no working prototypes currently on show, it's a hard estimate to put faith in.
Fingers crossed the real model has a touch more flair to it?
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