藉助人類學家設計更好汽車

This year, Ford, announced it was opening a research and innovation centre in Silicon Valley. But it’s not just computer geeks that the great American carmaker is hiring these days. It has recently taken on a plethora of social scientists as well, in its research labs in Michigan and around the world.

今年，福特(Ford)宣佈將在硅谷(Silicon Valley)建立一個研發與創新中心。但是這家美國汽車巨頭聘用的並不只是計算機怪才。最近，福特還爲位於密歇根乃至世界各地的研究實驗室聘請了大批社會科學家。

These psychologists, sociologists and anthropologists are trying to understand how we interact with our cars in a cultural sense. It is a striking development and one worth pondering in a personal sense if, like me, you spend much of your life rushing about in a car.

這些心理學家、社會學家以及人類學家正試着從文化角度來理解我們是如何與自己的汽車互動的。這是一個引人注目的動向，也是一個值得從個人角度深思的議題——如果你像我一樣，每天花費大量時間駕車奔波。

In the early days of the company, Ford executives did not seem to be overly concerned about “culture”. The founder, Henry Ford, was cavalier about his customers, famously declaring: “Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants so long as it is black.” But while the company has become far better at offering a customised service since Ford’s day, its cars generally seemed to have been designed by clever engineers who tended to assume that everyone liked the same things that they did: mostly flashy gadgets.

在公司創立的早期階段，福特的高管似乎並沒有過度擔憂“文化”。創始人亨利•福特(Henry Ford)對顧客漫不經心，他有一句“名言”：顧客想要什麼顏色的汽車就能擁有什麼顏色的汽車——只要它是黑色的。”但是，儘管自從福特時代以來，該公司已經在提供定製化服務方面取得長足進展，但總體而言，迄今福特汽車似乎都是由高智商的工程師們設計的，這些人傾向於假定，每個人都喜歡他們所喜歡的東西：大多是花裏胡哨的小玩藝。

These days, Ford executives have realised that it is not good enough to create cars simply according to what seems cool to its (mostly male) engineers in Michigan. They need to take a much wider and more imaginative view of consumer tastes.

如今，福特的高管已經意識到，單純依據其密歇根工程師（絕大多數爲男性）認爲炫酷的喜好來造車是不夠的。他們需要從一個更開闊、更具想象力的視角來看待消費者的口味。

That is partly because of globalisation — and, in particular, the fact that Ford (like all carmakers) is more reliant on the Chinese market for sales. Unsurprisingly, Chinese consumers often have radically different ideas of what makes a great car, especially if they are female.

部分原因是全球化，尤其是福特（就像所有汽車製造商一樣）現在更依賴於中國市場增長銷售的事實。並不奇怪的是，中國消費者（特別是女性消費者）對什麼纔是好車往往有着截然不同的觀點。

A second reason why Ford is becoming more interested in culture is that the nature of cars is being transformed in a surprising way. Back when Henry Ford started making his Model T, the task of building cars was a job for technical engineers. Today, it also involves computer experts since cars now contain a dizzying amount of software.

福特對文化的興趣日益濃厚的第二個原因在於，汽車的本質正在以一種出人意料的方式發生轉變。當年亨利•福特開始打造其T型車(Model T)時，製造汽車是技術工程師的工作。而現在，研發汽車的過程還涉及計算機專家，因爲汽車包含了令人眼花繚亂的各種軟件。

That has prompted tech companies to jump in. Last month, I listened to some engineers at Viv Labs, a Silicon Valley start-up created by the founders of Apple’s intelligent personal assistant Siri. They explained how we would soon be using cars embedded with artificial intelligence. Companies such as Google are creating self-driving cars and even Apple is rumoured to be creating a car of its own — a move that would probably create even more waves than last week’s launch of the Apple Watch.

這促使技術公司加入進來。上個月，我與Viv Labs的幾名工程師聊了聊，這是由蘋果(Apple)人工智能助手Siri的創始人建立的一家硅谷初創企業。他們向我解釋，我們將在不久的未來使用搭載人工智能的汽車。谷歌(Google)等公司正在打造無人駕駛汽車，甚至有傳言稱蘋果也在研發自己的汽車——此舉很可能將比上週發佈的Apple Watch掀起甚至更大的波瀾。

As competition from the tech sector heats up, this is not only putting traditional car markets under pressure but also fostering creative thinking about the future of travel. Executives at Ford are now trying to look at the whole business of carmaking in a wider sense — both by hiring social scientists and by working with consultancies such as ReD, a group that specialises in social science research.

來自科技行業的競爭日益升溫，不僅讓傳統汽車製造商承受壓力，還爲未來旅行孕育創造性的思維。現在，福特高管正嘗試以一個更開闊的視野來審視整個汽車製造業務——通過聘請社會科學家，並與專門從事社會科學研究的ReD之類的諮詢機構共同合作。

“We are looking at the bigger cultural context of cars,” explains Christian Madsbjerg, co-founder of ReD, who says that while Ford used to design cars “inside-out” (based on what engineers wanted), it is now trying to create them “outside-in” (based on what consumers want to experience). Or as Parrish Hanna, Ford’s global director of human machine interface, argues, what Ford is trying to do is promote “innovation” while using social scientists as consultants.

“我們正在尋找汽車更大的文化內涵，”ReD的共同創始人克里斯蒂安•馬斯比耶爾格(Christian Madsbjerg)解釋道。他稱，福特過去設計汽車是“由內而外”（根據工程師的要求來設計），而如今它正試着以“由外而內”（根據消費者想要的體驗）來打造汽車。或者正如福特全球人機界面總監帕裏什•漢納(Parrish Hanna)所稱的那樣，福特嘗試去做的是促進“創新”，並請社會科學家擔任顧問。

Though it remains to be seen what type of car will emerge from Ford’s new centre, I applaud the project for two reasons. The first is somewhat partisan: I trained as an anthropologist and have always lamented the fact that the discipline tends to be woefully under-appreciated and under-resourced. If companies such as Ford are now hiring social scientists, it might give anthropology a badly needed boost. Indeed, groups such as ReD say anthropologists are now cropping up in an increasing range of companies, such as Samsung, Adidas, Carlsberg, Lego and so on.

儘管福特新的中心會研發出何種車型尚有待觀察，但我出於兩個原因而讚賞該項目。第一點多少有點偏袒之意：我曾經學習成爲一名人類學家，並且一直對該學科傾向於被嚴重低估及資源不足耿耿於懷。如果福特之類的公司現在開始聘請社會科學家，這或許會給人類學帶來一個亟需的推動。事實上，ReD等集團稱，人類學家如今在越來越多的公司中嶄露頭角，比如三星(Samsung)、阿迪達斯(Adidas)、嘉士伯(Carlsberg)、樂高(Lego)等。

The second, more important reason this trend is interesting is that it could point to a bigger shift in business attitudes. Back in Henry Ford’s day, the power relationship between corporate executives and consumers was imbalanced; these days consumers can band together to express their preferences — and change their tastes at lightning speed.

這種趨勢有意思的第二個也是更爲重要的原因是，它可能指向商界態度的整體轉變。在亨利•福特的時代，企業高管與消費者之間的實力關係是不平衡的；如今消費者可以聯合起來表達自己的喜好——並以閃電速度改變自己的口味。

So when you next get into a car, it is worth taking a look around and thinking about what you might tell an anthropologist if they were sitting in the passenger seat. Could you imagine a radically different way of driving? Does the way we imagine “cars” meet what you really need? And if it does not, how might we — or those brainiacs in Silicon Valley — redesign the experience? I daresay the answer would make Henry Ford spin in his grave.

所以，當你下一次坐進汽車裏時，你應該環顧四周並想一想，如果人類學家就坐在副駕座位上，你或許想告訴他/她些什麼。你能想象出一種完全不同的駕駛方式嗎？我們想象的“汽車”體驗是否滿足了你的真正需求？如果這未能滿足你，我們——或者硅谷的天才們——該如何重新設計這種體驗？我敢說，亨利•福特地下有知的話也會忙活起來。