It’s The Design Stupid – Or Why I Think Autonomous Car Driving Adoption Will Depend on Innovative Design

It appears to me that when it comes to the consumer side of this new IoT phenomenon, style, usbility and design of the devices is critical. If the given device is both attractive and intuitive, it will also sell for a premium. Some of the examples that come to mind is the Nest thermostat and of course Google Glass!

I think it all started when Steve Jobs unveiled the first iPod. That design and usability were so completely new, simple, easy to use that it blew our minds. We now want this from all our devices.

In my opinion, autonomous cars will need to follow that trend to gain acceptance. They will need to have such compelling design, style and usability that will make driving secondary, and we will prefer to be inside the car to do things other than driving. I think that Mercedes might have come up with just that sort of vehicle design which was unveiled at the recent CES:

 

The challenge will be to add to the beauty of the style reliability of the technologies that will enable the vehicle’s autonomy to make us completely comfortable to enjoy the ride!

Daniel Obodovski explains IoT

My good friend Daniel Obodovski wrote a very good book, The Silent Intelligence, that provides an excellent overview of the internet of things phenomenon. He and his partner, Daniel Kellmereit, discuss topics such as connected cities, connected homes, connected healthcare, connected cars, and various other connected things, both industrial and commercial.

There are some key points that Daniel and I have discussed often which are well summarized in this video interview he did last year. The day Google acquired Nest (yes, the smart thermostat company!) for over $3 Billion Dollars, made everyone start pay attention to IoT, even though Daniel and I have been involved in this high tech area for over 5 years now!

 

 

Wireless Technologies, Big Data and Healthcare

Ok, this is a bit outside of the usual IoT area, but high tech and healthcare are becoming such a hot topic, that I wanted to share this presentation made by my friend, Dr. Mattison (here is his bio).  He spoke at an intimate gathering of TiE here in San Diego in September 2014. (Start video at 15 minutes if you want to go directly to the start of the presentation). In his presentation Dr. John covers everything from why you should wear your Fitbit, to genomics and social networking, and the transformation of what future of practicing medicine holds, and how doctors will again be healers with the help of these various technologies. In his first slide he has a list of books that he recommends, so stop the video and go to Amazon!