The Four Lenses of Innovation: A Power Tool for Creative Thinking

It’s happening now!

Automobile manufacturers are reframing the car as a smart mobile device that learns our driving behaviors, monitors our health and alertness, helps us to park, communicates with other vehicles to avoid accidents, and eventually will drive itself. Think of it as an iPhone on wheels, with downloadable apps, infotainment interfaces, augmented reality displays, and artificial intelligence, that’s connected to an “information everywhere” infrastructure—the Internet of cars. Brands like Tesla, BMW, Nissan, and Toyota anticipate an increasingly electric future, based on advanced batteries, hybrid motors, or perhaps even energy-storing body panels. Others are placing bets on biofuels and hydrogen fuel cells to drive tomorrow’s transportation. And passenger vehicles are only part of the story. For example, the biggest impact of self-driving technology will be on commercial fleets—millions of trucks and delivery vans are expected to become autonomous in the next one or two decades, saving industries billions of dollars on the compensation, payroll taxes, and health-care of professional drivers, not to mention the benefits of safer roads (robots don’t fall asleep at the wheel!). But it also means the trucker’s roadside diner will be a thing of the past.

Marketers in every ...