Cars are in the midst of the most profound transformation in the past 100 years. And that change is only accelerating. To celebrate this coming revolution, we’ve assembled the 10 most disruptive ideas, technologies, and people in the industry right now. Through them, we explore the form, function, and future of the evolving car.
Whether cellphones or cereal, consumers are demanding new products faster than ever before. Certainly, that’s the case with cars. In the past two decades, automakers have cut their seven-to-ten year product development lifecycles in half.
One company promises to shrink them further still. McLaren, the vaunted maker of supercars and Formula One racers, has long been known for nimble development. In its Formula One skunk works outside London, developers strive to engineer and test a new piece of technology every 20 minutes, which is light speed by automotive measures. New racecars can differ by as much as 80 percent from those fielded the year prior.