There will be many new vehicle architectures that will appear, all enabled by autonomous technology.
Single Occupant Enclosed Trikes/Quads
This is the Cabin Commuter to which I’ve devoted this website. This will be the most common and ubiquitous vehicle form factor in the world in twenty years.
Small Group Taxi
These will be vehicles for 2-6 passengers that will be used for carpooling and family trips, starting with something small like the Smart Cars that can currently be seen on public roads and going up to vehicles with multiple rows of benches or captain’s chairs like a contemporary minivan. These will be most like the vehicles used today.
Sleeper Cabs
This might literally be not much more than something like an enlarged coffin on wheels that has just enough space for a person to lay down in or sit up on a twin bed mattress and is designed for overnight human being delivery. There will be queen bed sized and other versions as well.
Mobile Office
This will be a work desk/chair setup that will become what all realtors, contractors and similar professions work from. They will range from tiny single seat/small desk arrangements up to larger setups with guest chairs and coffee tables and attached lavatories. This vehicle form factor will be the last holdout for mainstream privately owned transportation because many users will have their professional lives so integrated into the vehicle that it won’t make sense to share it through The Mobility Cloud.
Studio Apartments
This will be a small livable facility with a basic bathroom and kitchen that is like a contemporary bare minimum RV.
Larger Apartments
Every size/spec of RV imaginable beyond the previous entry will be available up to the point of vehicles the size of contemporary articulated tractor trailers, although the larger ones will be rare in the way that million dollar coach buses are rare today.
Outlier Vehicles
The entries immediately above will range up to giant mobile homes that can be constructed together at a destination to make a residence that consists of thousands of square feet of usable living space. There are some people in the world that can afford this, and if they want it, it will be available for their use.
This list is far from exhaustive and includes some vehicles that are similar to what’s out there today, but I’m fascinated by how our relationship to the car will change. It won’t be transportation anymore per se for some people, it will be mobile living. All these new vehicles and I haven’t even started discussing vehicles that are designed to carry things other than human beings, like groceries or retail purchases. The future is a wide open, diverse and exciting place!