The Musings Of An Opinionated Sod [Help Me Grow!]

As I sat there, listening to all the engineers talking, I realised their focus was more on optimising and evolving rather than innovating.

By that I mean, they were more focused on what they do and how they could make it better and more useful than embracing issues that were bigger than just the industry that they’re in.

So I said it.

Silence and incredulity.

“So what would you suggest?” one of them asked.

Now in these situations, it can only go one of three ways.

1. You go blank.
2. You say something they’ve already done/thought about.
3. You say something that makes them stop and think.

In the vast majority of cases – let’s be honest – it tends to be numbers 1 or 2, but on this occasion, I said something that fell into the last bracket.

“What if you made the car the most private, personal space they could be?”

That shut them up.

They weren’t expecting that.

To be honest, either was I … but while they came back at me with all sorts of technological and legal reasons why this couldn’t be done or wouldn’t be wanted – from car data through to our desire to be always contactable through our digital devices – the chief engineer was suitably intrigued for him to ask me to work with them on exploring what it could mean and who it would appeal to, most.

Which led to a year of one of the most interesting projects I ever worked on.

I should point out that when I talked about privacy, it was not about ‘isolation’ … though there is a value in that … I was talking literally about privacy.

Or said another way, ‘what goes on in your car, stays in your car’.

And while there was a bunch of fascinating research and explorations that went on in the quest to see where this could end up, it never got to where I hoped it would. And it certainly never manifested into an actual product I thought it could become.

Which is why this graffiti I got sent recently, hit home:

To me, this encapsulated where my head was at.

The desire to have a place where we are assured privacy and/or solitude.

A cross between a hibernation and a cultural vacuum, if you will.

To be honest, this was all influenced by work we did for Taj Hotels back in 2007 … where we blocked all mobile access at certain Taj resorts.

Back then, it was less about social media and more about the intrusion of work on family holidays … but the premise – and benefit – was the same.

[For the record, it was only possible because of where technology and the law was at back then. Plus all customers opted into this experiment with the acknowledgement there were alternative contact methods available, even if not as convenient]

Of course, I appreciate that was slightly different to what I put forward with the car idea. That was more about having a ‘social kills switch’ when the car was more a mobile ‘black hole’ … but I do believe the value of privacy – even momentary privacy – will soon rival that of FOMO.

We’re already seeing it.

From VPN’s to quiet luxury.

Not because we don’t want to be connected with the world around us.