Looking Out #39
Mercedes cools on CarPlay, designers prepare for a 3 degree world, voice clones proliferate, and why everything's now a cult.
15th May, 2024
Welcome to Looking Out, a newsletter about the auto industry, mobility, design, and the cultures that surround us. Looking Out is brought to you by Joe Simpson and Drew Smith of The Automobility Group. If you like what you see, tell your friends!
Looking Out - The Podcast EP19
Between Milan Design Week (vale, Salone del Mobile) and the Beijing Auto Show, we had a lot of design news to discuss, plus we read the tea leaves on what the shows meant for the manufacturers that showed up.
Get the audio version here.
Auto
Mercedes-Benz won’t let Apple CarPlay take over all its screens
Why it’s interesting: Mercedes explains why, having been a launch partner for Apple CarPlay, it now won’t allow Apple the deeper integration it’s seeking with CarPlay 2.
Pair with: Apple’s risky bet on CarPlay by Casper Kessels
When Every Car Is Made in China
Why it’s interesting: Insightful piece by the ever on-the-money Michael Dunne, who gently points out in the context of this week’s tariff rumours, that it’s actually mostly western brands responsible for Chinese imports (ie. building cars in china and exporting them back to Europe and the US). Dunne asks what happens when every car is built there, from a political, supply chain and control point of view.
Pair with: The Big Tariffs are Here from the ever excellent Noah Smith of Noahpinion
Anthony Lo leaves Ford
Why it’s interesting: Anthony — one of the nice, genuinely humble figures of Car Design — left his position as Global Head of Ford Design this week. Lo never made the permanent move to Michigan, instead choosing to commute from Paris. One of the biggest jobs in the industry, it will be interesting to see who fills his shoes at the Blue Oval.
Ed.: With D-Ford, Ford’s industry-leading initiative to place human-centred research, strategy and design at the heart of their development process, having been gutted last year, we’re doubly interested to see what Ford does next.
The realTesla Reddit thread
Why it’s interesting: A former Tesla employee, who claims to have been around at the time of the Cybertruck’s inception in 2016, is hosting an ask me anything thread on Reddit. It’s likely you’ve already seen this by now, but if you’ve not it makes for a fascinating read!
Mobility
3ºC Neighbourhood
Why it’s interesting: Civic Square and Dark Matter Labs with whom Joe worked many moons ago explore the implications and mitigations required in a 3 degrees planetary warming scenario. The groups are keen to point out this isn’t a scenario they endorse, but one they are increasingly believe we need to plan for.
Pair with: Africa’s Giant Lake Floods Nearby Cities, Displacing Thousands and Deadly flooding in southern Brazil sparks fear of climate migration
Gogoro’s new lower-cost electric scooter breaks sales records, begins shipping
Why it’s interesting: At a starting price of just US$760, the new Gogoro JEGO has already secured 6500 paid orders in its homeland of Taiwan. It’s amazing to think about the impact a vehicle like this could have on the streets cities snarled with millions of ICE scooters and motorcycles.
The People the Suburbs Were Built for Are Gone
Why it’s interesting: The United States is now made up of a majority of one-two person households. Its population is also rapidly aging. So what does that mean for all the single-family homes — designed for a mom, a dad, and a couple of kids — and the suburbs that contain them? A fascinating look at how American suburbs can be reimagined for a different way of living.
Design
The Sound of Software
Why it’s interesting: In an increasingly digital automotive world, we’re having to get used to a new set of sounds, or at least set that’s very different to what’s come before. Desperate to recapture the emotion lost to electric drivetrains, brands are investing heavily creating new auditory signatures. This article addresses sound on a smaller scale, with a delightful deep-dive in to designing sounds for on-screen interactions.
The Modern Curse of Overoptimization
Why it’s interesting: Data, and our ability to process it in ever more sophisticated ways, has made modern life a hell of a lot more seamless, and opened up a hell of a lot of opportunities for people. But what happens when we over-optimise, and then over-rely on the products and services that result?
Pair with: When your smartphone tries to be too smart and Antifragile: Things that Gain from Disorder
ElevenLabs Is Building an Army of Voice Clones
Why it’s interesting: A fascinating look in to a company that has already been implicated in the creation of ai-generated deepfakes. As we race towards the U.S. election, it’s more than a little terrifying to ponder what these folk have unleashed (and how seemingly unprepared they are for what’s to come).
Underpromising and overdelivering in the age of the software-defined vehicle
Why it’s interesting: Ok, ok, it’s a bit of a cheat this one. This is Drew’s latest column for Car Design News. In it, he explores the painful parallels between the Rabbit R1, the Humane AI pin, Tesla’s deadly FSD, and cars launching half-baked.
Culture
Why Kia is talking about Art and Design
Why it’s interesting: if you listened to our latest podcast episode (video link above) you’ll have heard us wax lyrical about Kia at Milan Design Week. This article gives more context to why Kia is trying to position itself as a cultural leader, with Design Head, Karim Habib talking intelligently about the role of technology, art and story-telling for the brand and his design organisation.
Apple apologises for cultural destruction ad
Why it’s interesting: Apple shows ad for new iPad featuring a giant hydraulic press destroying creative tools. All hell breaks loose online. Apple does something it rarely (ever?) does and apologises. Once upon a time Apple was the upstart, supporting — and owing its survival to — the upstart creatives of this world. But as John Gruber said:
[Apple are] no longer, and never again will be, the upstart. They’re The Man now.
Pair with: My Dinner With Andreessen (Marc Andreessen is the author of The Techno-optimist Manifesto, which is pretty much all you need to read to understand the particular variety of crazy that has captured the minds of much of Silicon Valley)
Everything’s a cult now
Why it’s interesting: An article that finally puts in to print something that we’ve been circling for a while here at Looking Out. With the fracturing of media in to a million different channels, each one tailored to a particular point of view, maintaining a cohesive sense of a shared reality becomes increasingly difficult. To see this play out in real time, just watch the Tesla apologists on Twitter.
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That's it for this issue. We love feedback (positive and negative), and to answer any questions you have. So email Joe or Drew and we’ll get back to you.