As a designer and some one who is passionate about cars, the issues facing the future of the automotive industry, the means by which we get from A to B, and it’s impact on our habitat and society are almost constantly tumbling around in some part of my mind. I’ve considered the idea of developing some sort of essay or thesis on this topic, but since I’m not much of a writer, and the pace at which ideas and information on this topic cycle in relevance, the fruits of my labor would probably be considered benign.  Besides, I am by no means an authority on the subject and what I really want to do is learn. So what I aim to do with CURB YOUR EMISSIONS is present some thoughts and ideas on the future of mobility, report some interesting developments on the topic, and hopefully get some sort of conversation going. So with that preface out of the way I’m going to just dive in and talk about whats been on my mind lately…

One thing that has always frustrated me on this topic is the demonization of the automobile. I remember when I was studying transportation design “Sustainability” became such a buzz word at school that it literally had no meaning to me. Who cares if you’ve written a list of sustainable materials next to your out of perspective awfully proportioned sketch of a car, which will be lucky if it ever becomes so much as a scale model let alone a hazard to the environment?  Oh, you want me to spend a term developing an infrastructure for urban mobility in Pasadena? But Henrik Fisker just told me what he really looks for in a young designer is some one who can come up with really great body side themes… Needless to say I was frustrated, and I sort of abandoned the whole issue to focus on what I was really hoping to learn at design school – the development of form around a set of functional objectives. What has become a great relief to me is that Henrik Fisker has made a great start on the path to proving that cars don’t have to suffer formally to be sustainable products, but that being said I firmly believe that the keystone to the solution of our eminent crisis is infrastructure. Cars aren’t the real problem, it’s the way we’re forced use them.

I’d like to break infrastructure as it relates to mobility into two parts. The most obvious one, and probably the most challenging one to resolve is the design/planning of our cities and the highway system. The other is the infrastructure which supports individual products making them either seamless and convenient to use or a meaningless gadget for early adopters to drool over. For this post I’m going to focus on the second part.

What I find increasingly depressing is companies rushing to deliver sustainable products which are supported by no infrastructure.  To me they are the equivalent of the list of sustainable materials next to an awful sketch, at the end of the day nobody cares, and they’re doomed not only for failure but complete irrelevance from the get go. I don’t want to name names because I’m all about staying positive now-a-days; so let’s focus on success.

To me the finest example so far of a sustainable product with a sound infrastructure remains Apple’s iPod. (I’m sure this product it’s self could be made from cleaner materials, but I want to focus on the big picture.) Not only did they bring you a great looking device which allowed you to stop carrying around a collection of disk based media, but they preceded it with the software to organize your pre-existing media and a retail model which allows you to completely eliminate wasteful not to mention carbon producing steps in the production and distribution process of all that great content you don’t own yet.  I think Amazon will see similar success with the Kindle.  What sets these products apart from their cometitors isn’t their design or functionality or even their entry into a reletively empty playing field.  These products dominate because they’re conceived as one part of a much bigger picture.

For the most part what we’ve seen so far in terms of vehicles which aim to resolve our environmental and economic dilemma typically end up taking as many steps backward as they do forward. The automotive industry seems convinced that this process produces baby steps forward, but it’s clear that the fable of the Tortoise and the Hare does not apply with this issue. Likewise the more radical concepts of urban mobility fail to acknowledge the simple fact that we’re human beings; stubborn, self-righteous, selfish human beings. We’re never going to be willing to pay more for less and we’re certainly not going to give up our god given right to the open road and our mobile territorial bubble. So how do you make a bold step without changing the status quo? How do you compensate the customer for any inconvenience you’ve created? Most importantly, how do you make it profitable? For now the most eloquent solution to this, that I’m aware of, is being proposed by a new business called Better Place, and investors are betting some serious cash that they’re on the right track.

Shai Agassi is one of my favorite people right now. This man is smart, like ultra smart. He walked away from an incredibly successful career in the software business, to “do the right thing” and started looking at ways to solve some the issues facing the globe. He managed to raise over 300 Million dollars based on the idea for his new business Better Place, and in 2008 Deutsche Bank analysts reportedly concluded that the company’s approach could be a “paradigm shift” that causes “massive disruption” to the auto industry, and which has “the potential to eliminate the gasoline engine altogether.”  Essentially it’s an infrastructure which makes the idea of electric cars realistic in the very near future.  His plan was warmly embraced by a number of nations including: Isreal, Denmark, Australia, Japan, and Canada. Currently he’s hard at work on bringing the U.S on board region by region with Hawaii and San Francisco already under his belt. Unfortunately auto makers are being sluggish as usual, but Carlos Ghosn has pledged Nissan and Renault’s support in developing vehicles. For now they’re doing converted versions of existing models, but I’m sure they’ve got some interesting new products in development. This post is pushing 1000 words and I never ever wanted that to happen so I’m going to direct you to a couple great video clips where Better Place is presented by Shai Agassi himself. Earlier this month he did a Talk for TED which you check out here. It’s 18 minutes long, but well worth your time.

The following clip is from a CBS program. Full disclosure this does involves a grown-up in a play pen using toy cars to explain the concept, buuuuut it’s only 5 minutes long, gets the point across, and it’s not all toys. Plus you can watch it right here on the blog!