Revs Institute Panel Discusses Impact Of Autonomous Cars

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif., Aug. 23, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Driverless cars won't kill automotive enthusiasm, but they already are changing how car designers think and how car collectors develop buying strategies. And if car collectors have anything to fear, it is increased regulation, not autonomy.

Those were some of the conclusions reached by experts in autonomy and classic cars during a Revs Institute panel discussion on "From Here to Autonomy" at the recent Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance in Monterey, California.

"When you design the interior of a car, you start with the driver, but we need a different approach if there isn't a driver," said Christopher Svensson, Ford Motor Company's top global designer for SUVs, trucks and commercial vehicles. "This fundamental shift in thinking will challenge design teams to create new ideas."

Driverless cars also could free exterior designers to be more expressive, said Chris Urmson, former chief of Google's driverless-car program who's now heading his own Silicon Valley startup.

With the number of collisions between cars drastically reduced, Urmson explained, safety regulations could be altered, freeing designers to be more expressive and varied in their approach to styling. "There will be a lot more opportunity for beauty," he noted.

The panel discussion, the first driverless-car event held at Pebble Beach, was sponsored by The Revs Institute, an automotive museum, library and research center based in Naples, Florida.  Other panelists included Miles Collier, a noted car collector and founder of the Revs Institute, and Britain's Simon Kidston, a car appraiser who develops buying strategies for serious investors.  Paul Ingrassia, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and automotive author, who serves as editor-in-chief at the Revs Institute, moderated the discussion.

Autonomous Vehicles 'A Near Certainty'

The consensus among the group was that while driverless vehicles are a near certainty in coming years, autonomous-vehicle technology will not keep enthusiasts from driving collector cars on public roads in the near future. Rather, autonomy will be a complementary tool to aid all drivers during dreary commutes that make up the vast majority of their time on the road.

As Svensson observed, Ford alone has 90-million vehicles on the road today and it will take many decades before the automotive landscape becomes entirely autonomous.  Kidston added that regulation is a greater threat to enthusiasts in the immediate future.

Kidston specifically cited air-quality rules already being passed in such places as Milan and Rome against the use of older, higher-polluting internal-combustion vehicles in city centers. He urged enthusiasts to speak out for the historical significance of their hobby.

Self Driving Cars Will Stratify Collectors Market

As autonomy becomes more widespread, Kidston sees the collector-car market becoming increasingly stratified. Great automobiles like vintage Ferrari race cars always will demand top prices, but as the cost of ownership increases, the vast majority of more pedestrian vehicles will hold limited appeal.

"The gulf between the best and the rest is getting greater," Kidston said. "It'll be a case of survival of the fittest."

For Collier, autonomous technology is "congruent with collectors of the future." Just as hybrid powertrains, a tool for efficiency, have been appropriated by sports-car manufacturers for making faster supercars like the LaFerrari, Collier pointed out that autonomy could "liberate the way we experience driving." Future cars might have both driving and driverless modes, letting owners choose different modes for different situations.  And in driving mode, virtual-reality technology might make routine drives feel more exciting to the driver.

Collier said he would consider adding an early autonomous vehicle to his collection of more than 100 cars at The Revs Institute -- not because of aesthetic appeal, but because of its technological and historical significance. The panel discussion, he added, was part of Revs' exploration of how the automobile's past will relate to its future, and thus "is right in the sweet spot of what we do."

SOURCE The Revs Institute