Forecourt What next, personal videophones?
Come with us, if you will, on a journey to the Forecourt of the Future, where electric vehicles will extend the time that Tomorrow’s Tech-savvy Travellers will spend refuelling their car, and where roadside convenience will not be the flustered, frantic affair it currently is. No: while you’re filling your sustainably-sourced battery with renewably-generated wattage, you will enjoy all the excitement of a fully-fledged supermarket, Wi-Fi-equipped workstations, hot desks with meet and greet facilities, and even a coffee shop (OK, we already have those). “If you’re looking to charge somewhere that doesn’t mean hopping off and back on the highway, a forecourt shopping centre is a far more obvious choice,” says Winstone Jordaan of GridCars, which reading between the lines, would appear to have a pony in this particular gymkhana. And we’re not talking 2050 here. Witness Big Bird N1 Freeway Midrand, which already offers a pharmacy, a variety of dining options and online shopping pickup.
Comment: Of course, the current crisis has shown us that perhaps we don’t need to be travelling as much as we once thought we did, so some of this, at least, may be moot. But we can dream.