Well hello there! 👋
It's been a shade over three years since the last R Motors update. Aside from a global pandemic and some other news events, here's what happened:
- Jancsi and I started the Fiat conversion project in earnest, in August 2019 - and we are still not fully done, but it's a road-going vehicle now that's a hoot to drive. The kit was incomplete, left a lot of steps up to our interpretation, and of course our own Fiat varied from the template that Electric GT started with. In addition to COVID quarantines and other delays, there was a maddening software glitch - think EV motor controller firmware, which is about as easy to fine-tune as a CONFIG.SYS file for MS-DOS gaming - that a consultant finally helped us iron out. The eBarth is probably unlike any car you've experienced. If you ever want to get behind the wheel, or just be a passenger, let me know. Electrons are still cheap.
- Some of you know this already: I paused the R Motors exploration when I took a job with Rebellion Defense in late 2019. The mission—build better products for national defense using modern software methods—was and is incredibly compelling. And I saw that mission through in a product role until August of this year. But I could never fully shake my obsession with next generation driving UX and I never fully settled into the right seat at Rebellion, so I felt it was time to move on.
Where does this leave "R Motors" – that erstwhile going concern that emailed you periodically?
Today, it's not as a EV conversion startup, but a personal search for a problem set I can be absolutely obsessed with and which offers the greatest leverage of my UX experience, industry knowledge and network, and team leadership/mentorship. The convergence of three irreversible automotive evolutions…
- Autonomy
- EV
- Connected Car / App Ecosystems
…is only accelerating, and I think there are ample opportunities with both legacy players rebooting themselves and new generation companies building the entire infotainment software stack to locate a suitable, driver experience-centric product design leadership role. A massive and impatient audience (well beyond the early adopters) is going to be swimming in advanced technology as the relationship between vehicle and passenger rapidly and simultaneously evolves. Not just customer frustration, but actual safety, is still on the line.
I think there will be a tremendous amount of thoughtful product design work to make this transition as safe and satisfying an experience for as many of them as possible. Trust in AI (even if you don't know it's AI). Distraction minimization. Information design that puts the critical stuff on top where it belongs. Deploying new business models without enraging consumers (seat heater subscriptions, anyone?). Service-by-app. There is a huge UX surface area to cover once software truly starts to eat the car.
This is work I want to do.
Please reply directly if you want to start a conversation about any of the above. Thank you as always for your time & interest in this journey!
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