Remaking Automaking for the Future

One day, perhaps the only reason people will visit a car dealership will be to get measured.

A machine would precisely laser-scan buyers’ weight-bearing backsides and send the data to a 3-D printer at the dealership, or at one of thousands of small-volume automated centers that could potentially dominate the industry. An upholstery printer, if you like. Along the way customers would have looked through thousands of virtual AI-iterated colors and patterns, allowing them to personalize their cars in ways that are impossible in the current era of cookie-cutter mass production.