Todays & Tomorrows

IDEO Autonomous Car

It doesn't take long for a new technology to become a new medium. Once the infrastructure is in place, the two or three things that follow it create a new feedback loop. In the 1950s, manufacturing was in place post-war, then car production ramped-up (which allowed people to decamp out of the cities), suburbia got built with government programs, setting off a chain of events, rippling through the mid-1960s, including a flourishing of aesthetic elements.

Artists and designers are crucial in giving these build-outs a skin. Once design is in the equation, myriad elements come into play, including music and fashion. If today were March 29, 1952, in about 10 years the zeitgeist would begin in earnest and last another 15. Then...