In TV shows, high-power executives sit in the back of black Escalades, taking important business calls while their chauffeurs navigate city streets.

Now picture that, but without the chauffeur. Actually, make it no driver at all.

That could be the future as autonomous cars turn time behind the wheel into free time, per The Wall Street Journal.

And major carmakers are already imagining the possibilities through experimental prototypes:

• Volvo Cars developed the 360c concept car, which is electric and autonomous, with four different layout options: living room, party, sleeping, and office.
• Audi’s Urbansphere concept vehicle uses self-driving tech and swiveling front seats to serve as a functional space aside from your home or office.
• Cadillac designed its two-passenger, autonomous InnerSpace concept car complete with lounge seating and a panoramic screen.

And more major auto brands are dabbling with new technology: BMW and Mercedes-Benz have recently leveled up their automation capabilities.

Driving the future

While we might be a ways off from taking naps while our cars do the driving, widespread adoption of EVs is nearer, and no gas-guzzling motor means more room for innovation.

We’ve already seen automakers introduce smartphone integration and ever-growing screens, but next-gen car tech could get even wilder:

• Holographic tech could one day allow for businesspeople to conduct “in-person” meetings from their cars.
• Generative AI might power in-vehicle voice assistants to help not only with navigation but with thinking through work dilemmas on the go.
• AR, VR, and the metaverse could allow for digital twins of your real office inside your car.

While the idea of your boss’s floating head appearing in the middle of a road trip might’ve already spooked you, there are other challenges to consider with the new tech.

Carmakers will need to figure out ways to preserve safety features — like airbags and seatbelts — while reimagining vehicle interiors.

It feels worth it, though: these concept cars are pretty sick.

Incompatibility. Infidelity. Insistence of federal regulators that your union constitutes anticompetitive behavior.

Every breakup has its reasons, and most of them bring pain. Not to discount the hole your high school sweetheart tore in your soul, but corporate breakups often carry an extra sting — one felt in the wallet.

• Breakup fees are a standard piece of mergers and acquisitions, meant to discourage parties from backing out of a deal.

Last week’s business headlines were dominated by the latest proposed mega deal, Capital One’s $35B bid for Discover. Coming along with it: a potential $1.38B breakup fee.

What happens if the deal goes awry?

While Capital One publicly projects confidence that it’ll cross the finish line and create the nation’s largest credit card company, its breakup fee provisions tell a different story, per Axios.

• Capital One will not pay Discover if regulators block the merger, revealing execs’ nerves that feds won’t approve the deal.

Expect that regulatory drama to consume both companies over the second half of 2024, but if the relationship is nixed sooner, the party that calls it off will likely be writing a big check.

History has seen plenty of those checks

For instance, Dish paid DirecTV a $600m breakup fee after the pair’s 2002 satellite team-up was denied, and Staples paid Office Depot $250m for its judge-jettisoned 2016 flirtation.

But none sting quite as much as AT&T’s failed 2011 takeover of T-Mobile — it wound up paying its rival $4B+, financing improvements that helped T-Mobile better compete with AT&T.

Still, money doesn’t heal all wounds

Like any breakup you’ve experienced, the average corporate split brings emotional pain, too.

Design platform Figma recently netted $1B in breakup fees when Adobe’s proposed $20B purchase fell apart, but the cash has only been so helpful after its “rug got pulled out,” per The New York Times.

Figma’s previous IPO plans now delayed for nothing, internal morale has been dented — Figma employees spent a year in limbo, putting in extra work to seal a financial windfall that’s no longer certain.

The only thing colder is, of course, your high school sweetheart’s icy, icy heart.

19: How many times the word “acai” appeared as an answer to a New York Times crossword clue in 2021. That’s a lot, given that the average word appears 1.86x per year. You can learn more about the rise and fall of various crossword answers in this delightful read.

31 years and 165 days: Perhaps not the age of the world’s oldest dog. Guinness World Records previously bestowed the honor upon Bobi, a Rafeiro do Alentejo from Portugal who purportedly died at that age in October 2023. However, a review found no conclusive evidence showing Bobi — whose breed typically lives 12-14 years — was really that old. Microchipping did not become mandatory for dogs in Portugal until 2008.

$800m: Cost of the Atlanta, Georgia, studio expansion filmmaker Tyler Perry put on hold after seeing OpenAI’s text-to-video generator, Sora. Perry told The Hollywood Reporter that the tool’s capabilities shocked him, and made him worry for those currently employed in film and TV production: “There’s got to be some sort of regulations in order to protect us. If not, I just don’t see how we survive.” Grim news for an industry already reeling from a pandemic, strikes, and layoffs.

~$1.8m: How much the estranged husband of a BP manager made off insider trading. Tyler Loudon pleaded guilty to eavesdropping on his wife’s phone calls as they both worked from home, then using what he overheard to strategically buy shares in TravelCenters of America, a truck stop service BP planned to acquire. When news of the acquisition dropped, shares shot up a whopping 71%. He now faces a $250k fine and five years in prison — and his wife divorced him.