Would you bring your electric car inside your home?

We take it for granted that cars must stay outside. But electric vehicles could fundamentally change that, and let us park cars in the living room.

Amid all the discussion of how electric vehicles will impact sustainability and jobs, there’s one important thing we’re missing: how it might transform our homes.

Today we take it for granted that cars have to be kept away from living areas inside. If not, people could get poisoned by exhaust. So we banish the most expensive item we own other than our houses to a cold, separate garage. We love our cars, but we can’t live with them, because they’ll kill us. They play no part in our homes — our toasters are closer to us than our roadsters.

We love our cars, but we can’t live with them, because they’ll kill us.

This is the case today because of gasoline engines: their tailpipe emissions are toxic. But it’s not necessarily true for electric vehicles (EVs). Just like refrigerators and washing machines, EVs are really just large electrical appliances. You plug them in and they get a little warm, but they don’t emit any toxic gases or cause unacceptable dangers indoors. They’re safe to have inside, running or not.

Home is where the car is

Would we want our cars in our living rooms? Other than couches, beds, and office chairs, we spend more time in intimate contact with car seats than anything else. The detritus of our daily lives — coffee cups, pens, cell phone chargers — are scattered around our vehicles as much as our bedside tables. We trust our children to car seats that we also pull up to our kitchen tables. Clearly, cars are part of our lives.

There have been a few examples of design professionals who park inside, and some concepts that blend electric vehicles with tiny houses. But these are fringe examples, and probably not the way that mass adoption of parking indoors would evolve.

What would it mean to have a car inside the home for ordinary people? For starters, unloading groceries, children, and people in wheelchairs right into the living room or kitchen would be tremendously convenient. Imagine lifting food bags directly from the trunk into the refrigerator without taking a step!

We could use well-designed car seats that already cradle us in comfort while driving as a second couch, perhaps opening a convertible top to lounge in the car as we watch a movie (a 21st century version of the drive-in theater). On-board entertainment systems are becoming increasingly sophisticated as car makers battle for the new mobile infotainment marketplace. Why not also use those high-quality speakers as our home entertainment system?

Imagine lifting food bags directly from the trunk into the refrigerator without taking a step!

And let’s not forget that the average car spends about 95% of its time parked. That’s a huge waste of those advanced on-board technologies and comforts. Should they really just be sitting idle in the garage most of the time?

Admittedly, there are other barriers to bringing cars into homes. Road dirt, snow, windshield wiper fluid, and dirty tires are all unwelcome in clean living spaces. That probably means that vehicles won’t come inside where these things are common. But many places are blissfully free of them, and improved technology can keep the vehicle’s own fluids under control. In a warm climate, with clean roads and no leaks, the elimination of tailpipe emissions might be the last barrier to cars going inside.

An electrifying idea

Would it be difficult or dangerous to charge EVs inside? The high-voltage cables that are currently needed for fast charging aren’t toys, and have to be handled carefully. But it now looks like wireless charging is becoming a reality. With no plugs needed, simply pulling into the right spot could trigger the wireless charging cycle, as simple as connecting your smart phone to your home wifi network.

There’s also a lot to be said for using the car’s battery to help power the home. We’re already seeing a version of this with the Tesla Powerwall, and it’s not hard to imagine more directly integrating the on-board battery with a home rooftop solar system or using it as an emergency generator during blackouts.

Towards a new auto architecture

In short, automotive technology is increasingly delivering comforts and capabilities that mirror those we have in our homes. We’re beginning to see designs that are almost mobile living rooms themselves, with DVD players, entertainment, and comforts that rival or beat what we have in our actual living rooms.

That’s why I’m issuing an open challenge to architects, to design the car-friendly home of the future.

So far, we haven’t really envisioned crossing the line from garage to living room because we know that polluting cars must be kept at a safe distance. But EVs erase that assumption, and allow us to imagine a new role for our cars.

That’s why I’m issuing an open challenge to architects, to design the car-friendly home of the future. It should have a cozy berth in the living room for our beloved electric vehicle, incorporate the car’s non-driving functions — sound system, seats, battery — directly into the home, and make the experience of transitioning from home to road and back as seamless as possible.

Architecture has grappled with cars many times, and come up with some tremendously innovative ideas in the process. With some thoughtful design and a little imagination, electric vehicles may soon become a part of our homes and stationary lives just as much as our means of transportation.