4 ms·

So I still won't be able to see my kids awake because of a 1.5 hour commute each way, but I'll be able to read the newspaper on the way to work? No thanks.

by tezzer 9y ago

WalterSear 9y ago
You do what you like. I'll arrive at work at 11 for my first meeting, having gotten a solid 1.5 hours of uninterrupted work done already, and be wrapping up any collaboration in order to return to my mobile cubicle by 4. Of course, I'll still be available via skype. The morning stand up may happen while everyone is leaving their driveway. Soon enough this new daily routine is going to be about as disruptive to productivity in the office as taking lunch, since almost everyone with a car will taking advantage of it. The start and ends of business days are going to become 'private', with people keeping their heads down, and interacting via video and chat/mail as the norm, with face-to-face work performed during the middle of the day. We may even have to do away with lunchtimes as we know them, since they take away from prime face-to-face work time. Or perhaps, with all the other communication going on, daily team-bonding time over food might be one of few on going reasons for direct interactions. And vehicles are going to start being designed to be really comfortable to work/play in. Every mid-morning, people are going to have to choose between getting up from the work they are stuck into and moving to the desk in their office, or staying focused on the task at hand. Eventually, people are going to start choosing the privacy and comfort of their car over the relative space of a cubicle, and more and more people are going to start working from the parking lot. Companies may even start expecting a portion of their workforce to bring their own vehicles, in the manner of 'bring your own device' and alter/reduce their use of offices. Of course, things could go the other way: in the city, you'll want to the car to go pick up the groceries and do errands, and then find a in a nice empty shaded spot out of town for the day, and to find a new spot if anyone sketchy shows up. This is just one tiny, tiny change as we move from a civilizations of vehicles to a civilization of intelligent transport. Cars and buses are about to be replaced by the equivalent of very small mobile homes/buildings.
- riot504 9y ago
  Why do we even need to get into any transportation system, why not work remotely 90% of the time?
  - WalterSear 9y ago
    Why don't we work remotely 90% of the time already? There are deep seated biological and cultural reasons why current technologies don't replace physical proximity. Some of the more important ones, such as networking, remote technologies can't even try to address. It's terrible for job seeking, lateral career changes and building connections.
    - Apocryphon 9y ago
      Maybe VR/AR offices are the future. Certainly they'd present less legislative and social hurdles than self-driving cars.
- nradov 9y ago
  You seem to think this is inevitable, but everything you described is highly speculative. There is no evidence that working habits will change as you predict. Plus a significant fraction of people find it impossible to work in cars due to motion sickness.
wavefunction 9y ago
@Walter Sounds like a terribly inefficient and unsustainable lifestyle. Commuting just for stand up?
- WalterSear 9y ago
  Commuting to collaborate with other people face-to-face for half the day. How is this inefficient, unsustainable? It provides the combination of private work and group interactions that are parcel of most white collar jobs. The vehicles will be electric, and many will probably spending any idle time at solar farms, to save on energy distribution costs, if they aren't being used as private offices. It is going to allow people to live where the want, and still do they work they want to.
  - ghaff 9y ago
    It sounds as if it would make a lot more sense for people to agree on 2 days per week to be in the office and work remotely the other three or something along those lines.
    - WalterSear 9y ago
      And get up 1.5 hours earlier, two days a week, and get home 1.5 hours later, to sit in their cars? Moreover: the cadence of business just won't let this happen, or it would be widespread already. The chance that is coming is that cars drive themselves. As a consequence, part of the business day is going to be spent working during the commute.
    - GFischer 9y ago
      That's what they do at the company I work for (I'm at a remote location so I'm 100% remote for them). I think it's the kind of setup that works best, for some kinds of software projects.
kaybe 9y ago
Now that I think about it, self-driving cars might not be all that useful to me because if I'm not the driver I can only sleep or stare out of the window lest I get horrible motion sickness. I wonder how many people are like this.
gowld 9y ago
you could videochat with your kids on the way to work, or spend less time in office because you work during commute

So I still won't be able to see my kids awake because of a 1.5 hour commute each way, but I'll be able to read the newspaper on the way to work? No thanks.

by tezzer 9y ago

So I still won't be able to see my kids awake because of a 1.5 hour commute each way, but I'll be able to read the newspaper on the way to work? No thanks.

WalterSear 9y ago

You do what you like. I'll arrive at work at 11 for my first meeting, having gotten a solid 1.5 hours of uninterrupted work done already, and be wrapping up any collaboration in order to return to my mobile cubicle by 4. Of course, I'll still be available via skype. The morning stand up may happen while everyone is leaving their driveway. Soon enough this new daily routine is going to be about as disruptive to productivity in the office as taking lunch, since almost everyone with a car will taking advantage of it. The start and ends of business days are going to become 'private', with people keeping their heads down, and interacting via video and chat/mail as the norm, with face-to-face work performed during the middle of the day. We may even have to do away with lunchtimes as we know them, since they take away from prime face-to-face work time. Or perhaps, with all the other communication going on, daily team-bonding time over food might be one of few on going reasons for direct interactions. And vehicles are going to start being designed to be really comfortable to work/play in. Every mid-morning, people are going to have to choose between getting up from the work they are stuck into and moving to the desk in their office, or staying focused on the task at hand. Eventually, people are going to start choosing the privacy and comfort of their car over the relative space of a cubicle, and more and more people are going to start working from the parking lot. Companies may even start expecting a portion of their workforce to bring their own vehicles, in the manner of 'bring your own device' and alter/reduce their use of offices. Of course, things could go the other way: in the city, you'll want to the car to go pick up the groceries and do errands, and then find a in a nice empty shaded spot out of town for the day, and to find a new spot if anyone sketchy shows up. This is just one tiny, tiny change as we move from a civilizations of vehicles to a civilization of intelligent transport. Cars and buses are about to be replaced by the equivalent of very small mobile homes/buildings.

riot504 9y ago
Why do we even need to get into any transportation system, why not work remotely 90% of the time?
- WalterSear 9y ago
  Why don't we work remotely 90% of the time already? There are deep seated biological and cultural reasons why current technologies don't replace physical proximity. Some of the more important ones, such as networking, remote technologies can't even try to address. It's terrible for job seeking, lateral career changes and building connections.
  - Apocryphon 9y ago
    Maybe VR/AR offices are the future. Certainly they'd present less legislative and social hurdles than self-driving cars.
nradov 9y ago
You seem to think this is inevitable, but everything you described is highly speculative. There is no evidence that working habits will change as you predict. Plus a significant fraction of people find it impossible to work in cars due to motion sickness.

wavefunction 9y ago

@Walter Sounds like a terribly inefficient and unsustainable lifestyle. Commuting just for stand up?

WalterSear 9y ago
Commuting to collaborate with other people face-to-face for half the day. How is this inefficient, unsustainable? It provides the combination of private work and group interactions that are parcel of most white collar jobs. The vehicles will be electric, and many will probably spending any idle time at solar farms, to save on energy distribution costs, if they aren't being used as private offices. It is going to allow people to live where the want, and still do they work they want to.
- ghaff 9y ago
  It sounds as if it would make a lot more sense for people to agree on 2 days per week to be in the office and work remotely the other three or something along those lines.
  - WalterSear 9y ago
    And get up 1.5 hours earlier, two days a week, and get home 1.5 hours later, to sit in their cars? Moreover: the cadence of business just won't let this happen, or it would be widespread already. The chance that is coming is that cars drive themselves. As a consequence, part of the business day is going to be spent working during the commute.
  - GFischer 9y ago
    That's what they do at the company I work for (I'm at a remote location so I'm 100% remote for them). I think it's the kind of setup that works best, for some kinds of software projects.

kaybe 9y ago

Now that I think about it, self-driving cars might not be all that useful to me because if I'm not the driver I can only sleep or stare out of the window lest I get horrible motion sickness. I wonder how many people are like this.

gowld 9y ago

you could videochat with your kids on the way to work, or spend less time in office because you work during commute