The Inspiration Game

No one wants to own anything, or drive anything, or change anything. The great Innovators have stopped innovating. The great storytellers aren’t making as much noise as the bad ones. And everyone is happy to follow the crowd – or so the crowd has been told…

In January 2019, Apple reported their first decline in revenues and profits in over a decade. They blamed weak iPhone sales and a downturn in China. True, the Chinese market has become a tougher nut to crack, but the underlying reason for the downturn is we’ve stopped wanting AND needing some of their products.

I used to queue outside Apple Stores to get my hands on new model iPhones. I even waited in line for over twelve hours outside the New York 5th Avenue glass cube in 2010 to be the first to buy an iPad. But that was then, I now struggle to justify the cold nose, sore feet and dented bank balance.

Don’t get me wrong, I have no interest in owning a PC or using Android as my primary mobile OS – because I still love Apple. My long line of MacBooks have never let me down and have been worth every penny and my iMacs have always been there when I needed them, delivering day in, day out for years. My iPhones have worked brilliantly inside and out, looked beautiful and felt like the quality products they are.

So why are Apple’s profits down? Because their flagship physical products are too good and too straight. Too good might seem a great selling point – but it’s clearly becoming an issue. My iPhone 7 Plus is into its third year of ownership and I haven’t upgraded my iPad mini for seven! They both work perfectly and I simply can’t justify upwards of £1,000 for the iPhone I’d want (or need) or an iPad Pro upgrade.

So let’s turn to ‘too straight’. Apple used to excite me. I’d eagerly await each live-streamed keynote with a sense of anticipation akin to the Oscars – living in hope for Steve’s ‘one more thing’. And he’d always deliver. Deliver something we didn’t need or know we wanted, but we just had to have it because it was the future. Our future.

The world we know and love has been built on elation, not iteration – but that’s what Apple now delivers. It makes $Billions from smoothly blending one model into the next. One service and software update into another. The world needs a defibrillator moment where we kickstart the kickstarts and make our hearts beat that little bit faster as we rediscover the joy of the unexpected.

Apple didn’t become the most valuable company on the planet by making poor business decisions so it’s not about dropping the things that work and veering off at a tangent. Tech rivals all too often over-promise and under-deliver, or feel they need to fill a market gap only to find no one wants what they have to offer. But the key to consumer engagement is telling a great story and making it relevant to a brand’s audience.

I’m not going to apologise for disagreeing with the statement “make things people want, don’t make people want things”. Screw that, most people don’t know what they want until they see it. A brand’s role is to tell them why it exists, how it can improve their lives and steer them to ownership, membership or sponsorship via the point of least resistance.

Advertising and marketing opportunities still bring us stories for the products we consume, but these stories need to be told by the people with the passion behind the brands. How they’re made is one thing, but the reasons why they exist are far more powerful.

I spoke with Roborace CEO, Lucas di Grassi in Berlin in December and he told me about the race series startup’s change of direction away from the Daniel Simon-designed Robocar as the audience didn’t understand its capabilities and true Artificial Intelligence. The focus has instead been turned to their DevBot car, with a combination of AI and driver interaction.

The inability of the audience to grasp Robocar’s relevance is not a failing of the motorsport fans – but a missed opportunity to tell a story of excitement, interaction and inspirational possibilities for the future, rather than one of the technology beneath the surface. Don’t give up Lucas, we need Robocar in our near future, weaponised and ready to roll.

It’s more important than ever to get this story right when introducing the next generation of self-driving vehicles. Industry experts speak of the irrelevance of dealerships and a pure digital future but they’re missing the point. Entirely.

Motorists won’t simply hop from their current vehicles into an autonomous network. They don’t trust the technology, it’s as simple as that. The way to convince is not through a VR simulation. Not an online video. It’s by physical experience, sat in the very car they will be instilling ALL their trust. This won’t be about telling an audience how safe a range of robot vehicles is – it’s through the vehicle occupant not being involved in an accident.

The next level of trust will be via word of mouth and the testimonials of ‘real people’ – not actors or brand ambassadors. Selling the autonomous future through trust not tricks.

But there’s still a world of inspiration for us all to discover. The iterators may be shouting louder, but sift through the white noise and you’ll find thought leaders not simply leading by telling great stories – they’re also leading by example.

Richard Browning of Gravity (or ‘Rocket Man’ as he’s more commonly known) is pushing the boundaries of personal mobility by offering us a superhuman vision of the future. He has built a successful business from his own personal invention, innovation and ability to sell a dream. One jetpack is evolving into a scaleable race series on the road (or lack thereof) to tomorrow.

Claire Lomas, an athlete paralysed in 2007 in an equestrian accident epitomises courage and encouragement. She has never faltered in her battle against her physical condition, unwilling to accept the boundaries seemingly imposed upon her. Claire has worn a robotic exoskeleton to complete marathons and her determination to excel has resulted in a new skill – motorcycle racing!

Both Richard and Claire aren’t playing the Inspiration Game – they’re living it. Roborace will also inspire and innovate in equal measures when their story is told in the right way to the right audience, and it will be epic.

Apple has stopped playing the game. It’s not too late for the company I still love to let the iteration take care of itself and get back to thrilling us with one more thing.

And if they’re struggling to find inspiration themselves – or any of us for that matter – the words from Apple’s own 1997 TV ad celebrate the existence of The Crazy Ones. The very people I love and will always aspire to be.

“Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers.

The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently.

They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo.

You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them.

Because they change things.

They push the human race forward.

And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius.

Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

Firestarter

Let me be quite clear, I don’t have and am never likely to have many heroes in my life. My Dad is one, Steve Jobs was another and a new one has entered my life recently, but Elon Musk is someone I’ve always placed firmly in this category. He still is.

However…

I know from personal experience how it feels to possess superhuman powers. That’s not as ridiculous a statement as it may sound. I do this for a living. I explore the potential for new technology, to enhance and compliment our lives on this planet and beyond, then demonstrate that to a global audience.

This requires a level of theatrical entertainment to bring technology to life and my constantly evolving XR Immersion Suit is the ideal platform to show man and machine in perfect (or occasionally imperfect) harmony. From the full-body haptic Tesla Suit, my AR and VR helmets, exoskeleton and bionic shoes, to the fireballs shooting from my fingertips – this all demonstrates future potential, the art of collaboration and believing in your dreams.

And when it comes to dreams, Elon Musk is the master. Offering an extraordinary vision for the future and delivering on that time and time again. From electric vehicles to space travel to the Boring Company pushing our concept of time itself.

Today, I’m torn. I’m always going to encourage everyone to live a life of passion and adventure, make dreams a reality and go beyond expectations but Elon just launched his $500 FlameThrower and I feel like the world’s biggest hypocrite.

My immediate reaction, along with thousands of others was “I want this”. Why would I not? It fits perfectly into my world. I took a look at the site, took out my credit card, then took a breath.

This fits into my world because this is exactly what I do and how I live, for others, it fits into the world they’ve always dreamt of, for the rest it has no place at all, but, well… IT’S A FLAMETHROWER, how cool is that?

Great for roasting nuts 🔥 🥜

A post shared by Elon Musk (@elonmusk) on Jan 27, 2018 at 4:53pm PST

But this isn’t something that simulates the action of a flamethrower, like an AR lightsaber – it’s real. Real heat. Real fire. Real responsibility. In a country where handguns are available from Walmart, we’re now offered a device “Guaranteed to liven up any party”. This may be accompanied by the line “World’s safest flamethrower” but that means jack shit when in the wrong hands – like the world’s safest guns.

For all this, I’m not saying don’t buy one – because I still love the idea of it, but I’m not prepared to jump on stage and promote it when it can so easily end up in the wrong hands. I’ve never felt more like an adult in my life!

There’s an enormous burden of responsibility if you’re a hero. Some take on the weight of the world – more than most will ever know or care, others simply inspire with their actions. To be a true hero, words aren’t enough because actions speak far louder, but when you combine the two they are extraordinarily powerful.

To simply offer unrestricted access to the future is to invite issues into a world with more than its fair share of problems. Chaos runs through my veins, I’m just not sure ‘fire for everyone’ is going to end well.

Let’s Talk About Sex

Actually, we’ll get back to the headline in a minute. For now, let’s talk about techs. Rolling into 2018 and everyone is asking the usual question – what’s the next big thing in tech? An easy answer is Artificial Intelligence, but ironically it’s not an intelligent answer, because it’s the wrong question.

AI will deliver unprecedented pace of engagement, hyper-accelerated data management, offer decision-making services, freeing human brain power to do what it does best – add personality, creativity, strive for success and push boundaries.

But it isn’t answering a question that needs to be asked right now. Those of us that ‘make stuff’ – either physically or virtually – and provide more than a service find ourselves delivering an experience, heightening sensations and making us all feel better as humans – even if only for a second, we’re asking the most important question – what’s the next big platform?

It’s mobility. Not just cars, it’s bigger than that. This is a platform that has history, heritage and a solid technological background, so it doesn’t fall at the first hurdle.

The automotive industry has spent forever telling an audience (drivers) that they can’t be distracted from their main objective – driving. This hasn’t been an opportunity to sell, as with most ‘platforms’ or deliver information overload. We have specific data to process when a vehicle is on the move – speed, obstacle avoidance, range and comfort and little beyond.

Although systems are already being integrated into the latest generation of cars, most visual information is still processed by us and acted upon in the most appropriate manner.

Entertainment has come in the form of audio-only broadcast or playback and nothing can encroach on our main focus. The industry is about to experience seismic activity.

With the introduction of the autonomous vehicle this ALL changes. From zero distraction to channelling the outside world. All of it.

I’m in the fortunate position where I get to test a lot of emerging technology at a very early stage. It makes a fundamental difference when you experience the future, rather than simply read about it. Take it from me, if I’ve been hands-on, I will tell it like it is – not just a sanitised relaying of the facts, but how we’ll feel physically and emotionally about what’s around the corner.

I’ll write a lot more about mobility as a platform as we deliver it in 2018 and beyond, but back to that headline…

If the car moves from a focused driving environment to an empty vessel bursting with promise, how do we fill our time and fulfil our potential? Well, you tap into the obvious first – social comms, localised information, entertainment (movies, music and gaming) and deliver the mobile office. But it’s in moving beyond this where we really tap into the benefits of a controlled environment.

I spent time with Renault recently, testing their autonomous SYMBIOZ EV. This performed on the expected levels – driving itself and in silence, but with the additional element of VR. Wearing a headset seamlessly built into your vehicle, displaying content that moves and turns in sync with the movement of the car doesn’t just immerse the occupants, but enhances the experience beyond that of a simple VR HMD. Control and comfort (both physical and psychological) are key ingredients to acceptance of VR as a viable medium. This is incredibly effective in a car.

So what content do we make?  I’ve long held the belief that we’ve neglected the psychological aspect of being human when designing a vehicle. Many people around the world use their cars as a personal and private space. A symbol of independence in an increasingly impersonal and overcrowded world. This naturally brings us to the elephant in the car – sex.

Drivers and passengers have sex in cars, but manufacturers refuse to publicly acknowledge this. As we head towards a world where we’ll be offered alternatives to ownership and ‘self-driving’, how will mobility brands entice their passengers in? They’ll need to offer comfort, personalisation and access to the things we all take for granted outside a vehicle.

So, admit it or not – sex happens. And it’s something that will increasingly occur in new virtual environments. Not to replace the real thing, but to enhance it, or extend the long distance (and potentially socially-driven) relationships.

In a data-hungry world, the connected car is only relevant if it’s actually connected. We demand this in our everyday lives and 2018 is a big year for building the foundations of the new mobility platform so we’re ready for the next technological revolution.

I’ve spent enough time with Huawei over the last 12 months to realise they’re poised to make this future platform a reality. They have a new partnership in place with PSA Group to connect vehicles to the outside world and each other but Huawei is once again playing its trump (small T) card with their future dominance of the 5G market.

I’m more than along for the ride with Huawei, I’ll be pushing for everything we hope for to become reality so we’re still driving the future, even if the cars are driving themselves.

If you'd like to hear more on the subject matter in this post, this Alexa Stop Podcast Innovation Social CES Special delivers.

VR48: Addressing VR’s Identity Crisis

You wait a whole year for a Virtual Reality endurance attempt, then three come along at once.

Derek Westerman spent 25 hours in a virtual room drawing with Tilt Brush, a 3D creative tool designed to allow the user to build VR sculptures. Result: He set a Guinness World Record, babbled incoherently and threw up in a bucket.

Next, Alejandro “AJ” Fragoso and Alex Christison spent 50 hours sat on a sofa, eating snacks and drinking Red Bull watching TV and movies on Oculus Rift headsets. Result: They too grabbed a record, suffered with indigestion and grew beards.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Guinness World Records and I have a long and happy association with them. However, Virtual Reality is saddled with an image problem, one of nauseating game-play and fellas mostly wasting their time. Sadly, these types of endurance records reinforce it.

If I sound less than impressed with these other attempts, it’s because I am. I spent 24 hours in VR last year (but that’s another story) and this year, as much as I wanted to tackle the official 48 hour VR record, GWR insisted we stay awake for the entire two day period and this ironically wasn’t realistic.

I joined forces with Sarah Jones, a senior media academic and 360º storyteller, to ‘live’ in Virtual Reality. This included eating, sleeping, running, fighting, driving, wing-walking, even getting a tattoo! Everything we tackled, we did so for a reason, not just because we could but to show the outside world that VR has a place in our lives and is there to complement it, rather than replace it.

We harvested meaningful data, relayed anecdotal feedback throughout our experience and 5 minutes per hour were reserved for dashes to the bathroom and 360º video diaries – not at the same time I hasten to add.

Amongst the more conventional VR experiences such as problem-solving, training, painting and gaming, we scheduled three extreme physical activities. Our first required us to drive go-karts around a purpose-built track, using the through-camera on a Samsung Gear VR to give us a video view of the surroundings. An interesting challenge when the vibration of the vehicle causes the camera feed to shake and blur, but a great illustration of driving on instinct and highlighting some genuinely useful user-cases for Augmented Reality headsets.

Race info, ghost competitors and screen entertainment for autonomous vehicles will all follow as a direct result of this kind of real-world testing.

Our second physical challenge required less movement but greater immersion. I was ready for my tattoo…

I haven't been under an inked needle before so this was my first taste of body art. I have to admit to being a less than enthusiastic volunteer but we were determined to discover if VR could successfully mitigate pain. The irritation needed to be sustained and relatively intense, so leg-waxing or nipple-piercing were out!

I chose Gunjack to keep my mind off the job in hand (or arm). This 3D space adventure requires a pretty low skill level, but quick reflexes and prolonged concentration.

I began the process with my headset up, allowing me an unimpeded view of my arm as the needle struck home – my baseline pain levels were set. If I were to describe this raw tattooing pain as a sustained maximum of 10, I felt the VR content and the subsequent cocktail of endorphins and adrenaline genuinely dropped the irritation to a 6 or 7. That result alone would have satisfied us but we were also wearing Apple Watches throughout VR48 to monitor heart rates. Mine peaked at 103BPM in the tattoo studio with a clear view of the procedure, dropping to 74BPM under immersion. That’s anecdotal feedback supported by real science.

Sarah and I returned some uniquely different results over the course of the two days and nowhere was that more evident than in our ultimate challenge – the wing walking finale.

Still wearing our VR headsets, we arrived at RFC Rendcomb Aerodrome at 10am, fresh from the journey from Coventry University to Cirencester in the back of a MINI Convertible – acclimatising ourselves to the freezing temperatures and buffeting we’d have to endure at 150mph when strapped to the top wing of a 75 year old aircraft.

With all our preparation, our additional webbing, straps and a bespoke balaclava weren’t enough to satisfy the experienced pilot or the Breitling Aerobatic team – we were told to hold onto the Gear VR headset with both hands for the entire flight. There would be no waving to the crowd mid loop.

We hoped to gain valuable insight into the effects of velocity and wind resistance on VR viewing. Could reality enhance the virtual experience and vice versa? To view this, we would again be seeing the real world through the Samsung headset’s built-in camera. Or would we?

I mentioned different experiences and mine took a turn for the worse when strapped to the wing, preparing to taxi to the far end of the airfield. “Please remove your phone and update the software”. Seriously? My Galaxy Note 4 had chosen this very moment to force a software update on me. I wasn’t asked politely if I would like to – just told it would happen or my phone was dead. With no adequate connection in the middle of a field, I was faced with a useless piece of technology.

Not willing to submit to the failings of the Internet of Things, I removed the phone and squinted through the headset lenses for the duration of the flight. Not all was lost, as I actually experienced this through the eyes of a partially-sighted individual. Chalk one up for the power of empathy, and a huge black mark for Samsung.

Sarah had no such problems as the team set up a wireless hot spot, updated the software and sent her off to view the entire flight as planned – with the valuable research recorded.

One of the surprise results of VR48 was our time spent in Knockout League, a boxing simulator for HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. Your opponent is a larger-than-life cartoon character but the gameplay feels every bit as real as time spent in the ring with an actual heavyweight. We found ourselves ducking and diving, with adrenaline levels and heart rates increasing as our (virtual) vision blurred from a flurry of head-shots.

If ever there was a case against stereotypical VR couch potatoes, virtual boxing was it. That and the go-karting. And the tattoo. And the wing walk.

So what were the side-effects? For an endurance attempt such as this, it can be difficult to differentiate between regular eyestrain and fatigue and that relating to being in a virtual environment. Sarah’s forehead was sore and her cheeks were temporarily marked. The bridge of my nose was bruised and my close-up vision is still slightly more blurred than before the event.

Other than that, we appear to be psychologically unaffected – even with our VR48 content planning requiring us to fall asleep and wake up in VR!

This medical research may come as a surprise to the public, brands and hardware multinationals alike as I’m pretty sure they all thought we’d be lucky to survive unscathed.

We received no support from any headset or mobile manufacturers as they believed we contravened all their health and safety advice, but these side effects are never talked about at the many global industry events and certainly not in the consumer press.

I hope we've gone some way to change the current perception of VR and to highlight its potential, rather than its shortcomings.

A version of this article originally appeared in the Huffington Post