*The Danes are still using "crowns" as a currency, I see. Also "Maja" is an A-OK name for a futuristic protagonist.
(....)
My car is outside now, with a hologram of my name scrolling across the window. Because I’m going more than 20km, House has ordered one of the larger, long-range Volvo autos. It looks very different to the first Volvo, which was made 120 years ago, but it shares the same aim – to give people more freedom. If it were a hop to my office in central Malmö, I’d take a pod – one of the smaller electric vehicles that bustle round our streets like rickshaws and sometimes conjoin to form “caterpillars” for big events like concerts or football matches.
The car recognises my phone. Its door opens for me and I get in.
“Good morning, Maja.” says the car. “Your journey to Louisiana Museum, Humlebæk, Denmark, is 92.8 kilometres. 100 crowns will be charged to your account. Journey time will be 39 minutes.”
We glide off, and soon pass one of the out-of-town autoparks, a 200m two-storey hangar where the autos go when demand is low, to recharge and repair. “Where they go to sleep,” as my little niece puts it. We’ve put the old city car park spaces to some imaginative uses. The one outside my local IKEA has become a taiga – a forest with plants and trees from the Arctic Circle. I’ve actually got lost in there a few times. It’s amazing how the city has changed over the years. Nowadays developments are built with people, not cars, in mind.
“Maja, you have time to watch the latest Wallpaper webcast. Would you like it to start now?” says the car.
“No thanks, car. I need to work.” As we glide through the city and on to the Øresund Bridge I scan the news quickly on the head-up display. Then I put on my VR glasses and watch a gallery walkthrough, just to make sure I’m ready for my presentation, and make a few extra notes on my tablet.
I almost wish I had more time in the auto. You can get so much done in the car....
