By Will Doig
Technological innovations are often initially met with puzzlement. When personal computers were first widely marketed to the public in the 1980s, some people couldn’t imagine why they would buy one. Who would need to do math at home? It’s not until that technology has infused itself into our daily existence that we can suddenly see with high-definition clarity how it transformed everything.
We’re not there yet with autonomous vehicles. They’ll change our lives, we’re told, but it’s hard to picture how, beyond allowing us to scroll through our Instagram feeds while a robot drives us to work.
The Road Ahead: Reimagining Mobility, a sleek new exhibit on view through March at New York City’s Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, brings this future into sharper focus.