Original 2021 statement: Your car dashboard of today will be obsolete in but 18 months, just like your smartphone
What Jim has written about this
From “Daily Inspiration: “It’s time to move from triage to tomorrow!”” (January 2023)
Much of what you know today is already obsolete - you just don’t know it yet
40% of the big car makers of today won’t exist by 2030, because they weren’t able to make the shift to technology-focused electric vehicle technology
Your car will have credit card capability embedded into the dashboard, in order to streamline drive-through and curbside pickup interactions
From “Daily Inspiration: “Much of what you know today is already obsolete - you just don’t know it yet!”” (April 2022)
“Much of what you know today is already obsolete - you just don’t know it yet!” - Futurist Jim Carroll
Knowledge isn’t just fleeting - it’s increasingly obsolete almost as soon as it is acquired.
That’s but one example -all professions, careers, and skills are impacted in similar ways. In construction, for example, new methods, new materials, and new priorities, such as eco-design and the increasing dominance of renewable energy technologies in the design process are changing the way buildings are built. In manufacturing, one client suggested that the typical machinist today almost needs to know how to do trigonometry in their heads. Car mechanics? They’re focused less on fixing actual car parts and more on diagnosing computer problems - and tomorrow, they’ll have to be battery technology specialists.
From “Trend Report: The Future of Autonomous Vehicle Technology” (December 2014)
Vehicles are essentially becoming large, sophisticated computers on wheels. The challenge is that Ford, Mercedes and Honda have never been in the computer industry, and know very little about computer interface design issues. The result is that we end up with these dashboards with clunky interfaces, disgraceful methods of interaction, and design that is simply a dog’s breakfast of something thrown together at the last moment. Contrast that to the dashboard and interactive user experience of a Tesla Motors vehicle — a car essentially designed by a computer company…
What does this shift to Silicon Valley mean? New dashboard technologies, power sources and power storage tech, intelligent highway technologies — all the stuff that goes into autonomous and 21st century vehicle technology — will increasingly emerge ‘in the Valley.’ And anyone in tech knows that hi-tech companies innovate a lot faster than any other industry. This is a pretty profound and significant shift — automotive companies are going to find that increasingly they are in a world in which ‘the future belongs to those who are fast.’ If they can’t keep up, then their product lines will become increasingly obsolete, out of date, and uncompetitive.
Here’s something to think about: it is said that today the typical pilot, whether for an airline or flying privately, spends just about 14 minutes actually flying the plane. The rest of the time is autonomous — autopilot technology. That’s the reality of what we are headed for, one day, with ground based vehicle transportation. Remember — the future happens. The rest is just timing.
Read the full pieces on jimcarroll.com:
Daily Inspiration: “It’s time to move from triage to tomorrow!”
Daily Inspiration: “Much of what you know today is already obsolete - you just don’t know it yet!”
Trend Report: The Future of Autonomous Vehicle Technology