Image by projectbetterplace.com
Last friday it was lab time again. This week we talked about projectbetterplace.com. A project mainly driven by Shai Agassi, former member of the executive board at SAP. It’s a very interesting project to observe as lot of interface and corporate interaction design will be involved there.
What is projectbetterplace?
Shai Agassi’s speach in Washington is a good introduction to the subject but the website also gives you some
“We see an oil-free future and a healthier, safer planet. In 2008, Project Better Place will start providing an electric alternative to high-consumption professional automobiles, like taxis and delivery vehicles. We will then grow from country to country, metropolis to metropolis. Each step of the way, we’ll move closer to making electric vehicles available to the public…”
“Project Better Place is very excited that the State of Israel has become the first country, and Renault-Nissan the first automaker, to announce their partnerships with us to begin a mass deployment of electric cars. We believe that it is past time to begin making it possible for consumers to choose an electric vehicle that is much less expensive to operate, does not emit pollution or greenhouse gases and provides a better driving experience from their current automobiles…”
- projectbetterplace.com
A lot of interactions and experiences
Shai is talking a lot about the social contract we have with our cars. And it seems they’re working pretty hard to keep up with that contract.
A lot of user experience and interaction design will be involved when building these electric cars and the service infrastructure. Reaching from promoting the project to locating stations to swap and load batteries. Finding these stations will be a fundamental task in the car. All these interactions have to be designed with the social contract in mind.
Discussion and the future
However there are also some drawbacks we discussed about. There’s been an interesting panel that took place in Washington initiated by Google and Brookings where some of these questions also have been adressed.
An interesting project, a great vision and opportunity. We’re looking forward to observe its progress.
Interessting initiative, that currently causes a lot of public rumour and also makes waves in the automotive industry. I personally hope, it will increase the speed in the race for environmentally friendly transportation. I also hope that not only the “front-end” – i.e. the car itself – is “green”, but also the production of energy and the transmission.
An approach that could be promising is (still) solar energy which could already produce enough energy for the whole population into the desserts of the world: http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/0,1518,554054,00.html
Remains the hope that these positive initiatives are not blocked by politics and lobbyists and that they are inspiring a lot of people to make the world a better place.
Actually that is also part of the project. According to Shai Agassi only 7% of additional energy is needed to power the cars. Seems very little!? So I guess that’s one of the interesting answers that will be the result of the project.
But they’re trying to tackle this subject by building a virtual oil field out of solar energy in Israel and wind energy in Denmark that shall supply this amount of energy.
Another interesting point you mention was discussed during the panel in Washington. How can the oil industry be included in these plans so they want block but support these efforts? Actually some of the investors of the project do have a background in these businesses.
Very interesting article, i bookmarked your blog
Best regards