As a topic that affects so many, the public imagination has been lit by reports of Google’s self-driving car tests and Amazon’s drone delivery plans. IDEO, the award-winning global design and innovation consultancy, have related plans for automated driving and delivery.

Their smarter car would be able to platoon with others like it on the highway, simultaneously speeding up or braking with the rest of the chain. Their automated delivery vehicle scans your face to release the parcel.

After a day's work, the WOW module would return to the storage facility at night for recharging. Photo: Courtesy of IDEO.

While those ideas are variations on a theme, their WorkOnWeels, or WOW, concept feels unique. The modular office on wheels would come to you and transport your team—literally. It’s a mobile, automated workspace complete with interactive work surfaces and office furniture that magnetically locks in. You could direct it to take you to the city’s most scenic vistas or its less congested areas, relieving some of the tensions of a crowded office space.

Although none of this samplings of IDEO’s creativity have reached the material stage, they are provocations, intended to help us imagine a future surrounded by such vehicles and how they would impact our lives. As such, IDEO are developing not just the future of mobility, but the future of Automobility.