I'm pretty sure he means that he doesn't want anything that has both an infotainment system and a steering wheel...in other words, he doesn't want an entertainment system in a car.

I thought he meant that he doesn't want an infotainment system in his car until we have self-driving cars.

Can't wait until self driving cars become the norm; I don't need a drive way, a garage and the suburb I can live in can have smaller roads with the space for cars given over to walking paths and bicycles. Maybe in 2050.

This is precisely what I meant, yes :)

I'm trying to imagine a personal car without a steering wheel without an infotainment system.

Of course such vehicles will have infotainment. I've long been thinking about what sort of content would work best. Short, serialized content released on a weekday schedule would certainly be an opportunity. Perfect watercooler fodder.

Ads, of course, for some definition of 'works best' (extreme variant: self-driving car offers to pick up what you order while you are at work) If I were an employer, I might pay my personnel to have the infotainment part replaced by educational material on their way to work.

Nice idea...

As an employee you could get the ride in the car free, as a perk, iff you watch the educational material and pass a test on it. This would be assessed during the ride via onscreen multiple-choice questions; get less than 50% correct (or, turn it off) and you have to pay for the journey!

The crap they show in the back of NYC taxis does seem to fit the bill (short 2-3 min videos, changes fairly regularly, though heavily mixed with advertisements). It is crap, but I imagine once there are driverless cars, the format will gather interest from more creative sources.

Why use it for creative purposes when you can use it to show ads? Talk about a captive audience. I'm betting that Google is going so big into driverless cars so they can show you ads on the windshield once it's proven + accepted as safer than human drivers. It might take 20 years, but they're opening up a new advertising channel.

I always thought it would be cool to play an on-rails first person shooter where the "rails" matched the road you were travelling at the time.

People used to buy aftermarket stereos fairly frequently and I don’t see any reason why the infotainment system can’t have that kind up upgradeability. Worst case strap an iPad over the old system.

PS: I can see the argument for a highly limited system when they can distract the driver, but if I am effectively a passenger that's a non-issue.

I'm infuriated by the systems that are totally locked down when the car is in motion, even when the car _knows_ that there is a person in the passenger seat (it yells until I put on my seatbelt).

If I'm the passenger, I should be able to tinker with the infotainment system as I like, without restriction (especially when my dad is the driver and I want to enable bluetooth audio to play music from my phone - my dad drives a newish Outback, great car from a driving perspective, crappy from the infotainment system perspective).

I'm not a fan of screens simply because operating a button or a knob uses less of my attention

I agree with you right now, but is that still an issue for self-driving cars? Ideally I want to get in, say drive to work, and then take a nap. If I still need to pay attention then it's not really a self-driving car just an upgraded form of cruise control.

iPads are not very friendly to your face in the event of a crash. Apple devices are also famous for not wistanding heat or cold. Real automotive equipment is rigorously tested for these scenarios and many more.