![]()
MY BOOK ![]() ARTICLES Peak Freaks Hurricane NYC From Grief to Action (pdf) The Coming Energy Crunch Auto Asphyxiation Alarmingly Useless LINKS Kunstler Oil Drum NYC NoLandGrab.org Starts & Fits Dope on the Slope Brooklyn Views Polis Atlantic Yards Report Transportation Alternatives Rushkoff Planetizen Global Public Media Laid Off Dad Bird to the North Auto-Free NY Gothamist Gotham Gazette Mom Previous Life Winds READING Catastrophe Notes Small Urban Spaces High Tide Powerdown Rendezvous With Rama Ancient Sunlight Geography of Nowhere The Power Broker Resource Wars Invisible Heroes Nothing Sacred ARCHIVES June 2003 July 2003 August 2003 November 2003 December 2003 January 2004 February 2004 March 2004 April 2004 May 2004 June 2004 July 2004 August 2004 October 2004 November 2004 December 2004 January 2005 February 2005 March 2005 April 2005 May 2005 June 2005 July 2005 August 2005 September 2005 October 2005 November 2005 December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 January 2010
|
![]()
The Ford Blade Runner Nineteen-fifties concept cars were the ultimate dream machines. The shiny, tail-finned vehicles "headed to your driveway soon!" reflected a vision of a comfortable, optimistic American future just up the road. Boy, have times changed. The World of Tomorrow envisioned by the designers of this year's Ford SYNus could hardly be more bleak. According to Ford's marketing brochure, the SYNus is an armored "techno sanctuary" with "intimidating styling." The gun turret slits on the van's sides are -- no kidding -- "non-opening and bullet-resistant." It's compact enough to "maneuver" tight urban streets yet "bold enough to run with the big dogs." When you're done driving (or you've completed your mission), you don't just shift this vehicle into "park," you lock it in "secure mode" and "deploy" protective shutters over the windshield and side glass. Who needs public space when the interior of the SYNus can "transform into a mini-home theater with multi-configuration seating and multi-media work station." Rather than a rear window it's got a 45-inch flat panel TV screen with Internet access, game console readiness, and rear-mounted outdoor video cameras that let you monitor your dangerous urban surroundings. So, why does the citizenry need -- er, excuse me -- why does the market demand such a vehicle? According to Ford, "As the population shifts back to the big cities, you'll need a rolling urban command center." We will? That's an interesting thesis. The way I see it, as big cities like New York grow more populous, as the complications of declining global oil supply hit home, and as climate change becomes a more tangible, in-our-face issue over the next 10 to 20 years, we'll be working overtime to redesign our cities to be increasingly car-free. Like most of the stomper 4x4's churned out by Detroit these days, the Ford SYNus doesn't have a place in the healthy, functional city of 2020. It belongs in a bleak and terrifying urban future that I can't see many of us wanting to live in. In the end, this car is the logical extension of SUV marketing. The more intimidating and aggressive vehicles there are out on the road, the more you need one too, lest you be squashed. It's an arms race and the Ford SYNus is the latest weapon you need to defend yourself. In the past, automobile manufacturers marketed to our basest desires. The SYNus is marketed to our basest fears. It's hard to know if this "rolling urban command center" is designed for urbanites fearful of terrorism, or for the terrorists themselves. Perhaps the Ford designers who developed the SYNus are making an artistic statement -- an observation about what things have come to on the roads of America. The New York Times seems to think so. They call the SYNus "the boldest, most honest rhetoric" at this year's big car show. But that's a little like saying General Motors' Yukon Denali SUV is a commentary on the rapidly melting glaciers near Alaska's Mount Denali. We don't look to Detroit to stand on society's sidelines and issue bold rhetoric. The automobile business does more to shape the world we live in that just about any other sector of American industry. If the American urban environment is soon to be so terrifying that we require a rolling "bank vault" to take the kids to soccer practice, then let's acknowledge that our own, extreme car dependence has had a hand in making it so. The dysfunctional, traffic-choked, road raging, oil-addicted present is a version of the future that Detroit very much helped to envision, design and produce. Accounting for everything from the angry horn-blasting outside my Brooklyn window to the need for a massive US military presence alongside our Middle East gas station, American car culture has become one of the most destructive forces on the planet today. We obviously need much more than bold rhetoric from Detroit. We need them to begin producing and agressively marketing low-emission, high fuel efficiency vehicles. And we need them to help Americans understand how our cars are hurting us in the same way that Big Tobacco now supports anti-smoking initiatives. We need some more of that old, 1950's vision and optimism but this time coupled with a deep sense of responsibility and accountabilty for the mess they've made of our American landscape. And let's all hope that American urban dwellers never need one of these...
Comments
Thanks Larry. Yeah, on the more positive side, at least the SYNus is smaller than the Expedition and all those other mega-SUV's that Ford sells into cities. But I still think it's way too large for an urban vehicle. And the selling-point is clearly the body armor, not the size. Actually, I imagine that Ford considers this to be the only way they can successfully sell a smaller car into the city -- by making it superficially macho as hell.
Post a Comment (You'll be taken to Blogger's site and then returned back to this page.) |