Thinking outside the box is clearly a concept that has been watered down and diluted through overuse. Now, even basic innovations are often attributed to it, when very clearly they are the product of traditional mentalities and ways of looking at things that have been forcefully bent to seem fresh – this is the business world we’ve created, and we seem to be relishing it.

This project by IDEO is different, though, as it proposes a dramatic rethink of what we understand through the concepts for “office” and “car.” They try to blend both into one, and instead of having you commute to the office, the office/self-driving car will commute to you, then take you and your business partners to the lakeside for a quiet and inspirational setting.

This is much closer to actually “thinking outside the box” – turning the concept of commuting on its head. It’s not really clear just how good or effective this would be, but it’s certainly showing the studio is genuinely trying to move things forward.

So, what do you think: do you prefer having to commute daily to the office, or would you have it pick you up from home, then whisk you away somewhere nice that doesn’t impede your work flow? For people who are working from home and have done so for quite a while, that sounds like the right way to go to not get into a major rut and always see new and inspirational things.

I mean, you get to use autonomous tech usefully, but it does by no means imply giving up the freedom of driving your own car. They just become two separate things traveling to/for work in your autonomous wheeled office and using your car to go for leisure and personal business. We say thumbs up for this idea!

Story References: Bloomberg

Video

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