● THE CAR DESIGNER

Car design will be a secondary consideration, says CAMILO PARDO, chief designer of the 2005-06 Ford GT.

Q: WILL AUTONOMOUS CARS BE DESIGNED MORE CREATIVELY?

A: Once a vehicle is on the street, I think federal laws are going to have a hard time waiving anything. Even i f the autonomous vehicles have safer drivers, you’re going to have ’60s cars on the street for years to come, ’80s cars. They’re not going to j ust disappear. A l ot of other factors are going to impact what these autonomous vehicles look like. Visibility from the inside out is not a priority, especially if people aren’t even facing the windshield; they could be facing each other. Q: STILL, IT’S NICE TO SEE OUT OF THE CAR.

A: But it could be optional. You could toggle it off or on, or you could be more selective. … Also, if the cars are going to be electric, then the front of the car may not need so much air coming in. This big grill that a lot of vehicles use as an identity would be eliminated. … If the vehicle is driving itself and doesn’t need headlamps, all it needs is marker lamps so other people can see it.

A lot of autonomous vehicles will fall i nto the fleet category: a cab company or Uber, who will get rid of drivers. They don’t care what it looks like; they care what it costs. No one’s going to have any passionate attachment to the damn thing. It could be more phone- booth- l i ke, j ust so i t goes. And they’ll have advertisements on the side. I think the appearance is going to go south.