The Future of Automotive Freedom

"davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com" (davesaddiction) 01/14/2016 at 11:13 • Filed to: autonomobiles, RightFootDown

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Freedom. It is an inalienable human right, but something that individuals have strived to obtain and maintain since the earliest days of civilization. Freedom comes in many forms: freedom of speech, freedom of religion and freedom of assembly, just to name a few. To the automotive enthusiast, however, one of our most valued freedoms is that of movement. To have the ability to, at any instant and at a moment’s notice, jump into our car or truck and travel wherever the road might take us is an incredible thing, and for some, roads aren’t even a requirement. Granted, there are borders that are restrictive and jobs and other responsibilities that often keep us at home, but the freedom of movement that comes with the ownership of an automobile is truly astounding.

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One of the first tastes of real freedom that we experience as an adolescent is when we have our own car (or use of someone else’s) to go out and do whatever we might want to. Before then, we were limited to how far our feet or bikes would take us, or to places where our parents or older siblings were willing to drive us. With keys in our own hands, however, we could start to chart our own paths: meeting up with friends on our own timetable, finding a job that we could get ourselves to on time with no reliance on anyone else, or taking a long trip to see some faraway place for no other reason than because we could.

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Consider those living here in the United States at the turn of the last century. A person may have owned a horse, but that only gets you about 25 miles per day down the road – many of us drive that far every day, twice a day, just to go to work. There were trains, but those run on a schedule of their own and only to certain places. Motorcycles were starting to become an option, but the freedom that comes with individual ownership of an automobile must have been a very foreign concept for most around the time that the first Model T rolled off the production line in 1908. In 1920, less than one in ten people in the U.S. owned an automobile, so this freedom was limited to the wealthy. But in the ‘50s, there was one car on the road for every three people. In 1970, it was up to one for every two, and that number continued to rise slowly in the following decades, peaking at 842.6 vehicles per 1000 people in 2007 (per USDoE, though !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! thinks we are !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ).

For better or worse, car ownership has shaped our cities and towns for the better part of the last century, and now we find ourselves at a turning point. Many of our cities are clogged with traffic several times a day, which sometimes leads to unhealthy smog. There are worries that human activity could be changing the world’s climate in a perhaps irreversible way. The collective sum of each of our individual desires for freedom of movement at times leaves us caged, sitting in our two-ton machines, surrounded by hundreds of others on a seemingly endless ribbon of asphalt. As much as you might love to drive, no one enjoys sitting in traffic, inching along, riding a perpetual Slinky of steel, glass and rubber.

Image credit: India.com (yes, really)

There are many smart people working to solve this problem and billions of dollars being invested – teams at Google, Tesla, Apple, Ford (which now refers to itself as a “mobility company”) and the far-from-farsical Faraday Future just to name a few – and some of the potential solutions come with real trepidation for us, the enthusiasts, and for good reason. This topic has been broached !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! before, as well. It’s not too hard to envision a future where governments and insurance companies decree that it’s just too risky to let a human pilot an automobile when a computer can do it, on average, so much more safely. Any possible loss of freedom is always a legitimate cause for concern. But while it is a distinct possibility that we could lose some rights, that day seems very far off to me, so I choose to focus on the potential benefits of autonomous vehicles, or autonomobiles, if you will, and I believe that the additional freedoms that they will offer for many will outweigh the potential downsides for the few.

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Benefits to the Commuter

Some people couldn’t care less about driving, and only do it because they must to get from point A to point B in a timely matter. They view their cars only as appliances, and only care to have a vehicle that is reliable, safe and comfortable. If they could purchase or rent an automobile that is all these things, and drives itself, they’d be overjoyed to have the time of their commute back to work on important things such as crushing candy, Snapchatting it up with their friends, or keeping up with the Jenners.

Benefits to the Traveler

Imagine packing up your family for a long journey in the evening, setting your destination, going to sleep and then waking up 500 miles closer to your destination. This is terribly appealing idea to me. My extended family is large and spread far and wide, and flying my own family of five can be very cost-prohibitive. I love a good road trip, but my eyes don’t work as well at night as they once did, so I can’t drive into the wee hours of the night like I did in my college days. Being able to use the hours when a driver would otherwise be sleeping to chip away at a cross-country road trip is a great benefit to travelers. Only motel owners would shed any tears about this.

Image Credit: Advertising Archive/Courtesy Everett Collection, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

Benefits to the Parent

Some people are already using Uber to shuttle their kids to and from school and practice, which rightfully raises the eyebrows of many. However, as any parent knows, it is a real challenge to juggle requirements of work, and life in general, with the needs of a child or children who must be ferried from place to place for their various activities. A whole other discussion can be had on how beneficial all of this is for our progeny, but the fact of the matter is that this is the norm for the majority of families these days. As a dad of three kids, who will soon have all three in a full slate of sports and other after-school interests, I can see one day trusting a robot to come to my doorstep and welcome my son or daughter into its inoffensive confines, and then to safely and efficiently transport him or her to the door of their school or gym. Call me crazy, but I believe I’d trust a benevolent robot far more than a human driver that I had never met before.

Benefits to the Drinker & Smoker (and those that share the road with them)

We, as a society, like to tip them back and light them up. And while how you pursue your happiness is very little of my business, I’d prefer you not do so prior to piloting anything with an impetus of over 55 thousand newtons. Uber has given life and legality to many intoxicating pursuits that were, heretofore, inadvisable, and autonomous vehicles will do the same. The real question is really only this: who will clean up the car after the rider stumbles out?

Benefits to the Aged, Handicapped and Blind

This is where I see the greatest benefit of autonomous cars, and this has become more evident to me in recent months, as my own father is getting up in years and wants to drive long distances less and less. Consider for yourself, as one who loves to drive, how hard it will be to hand over your keys when your faculties are no longer up to the task of driving a car. You not only will be giving up something you love doing, but also much of your personal freedom. After perhaps 70 years of being able to go anywhere you wanted, whenever you wanted, you’ll once again be dependent on others to get you where you want to go. Autonomous vehicles could provide much of the freedom and self-sufficiency that people often lose later in life, as well as provide incredible mobility for blind people and those with certain handicaps. Individuals who never thought they could possibly have the freedom of an automobile could now own a car with a super-intelligent chauffeur to take them anywhere they’d like to go. How great is that?

Image credit: Virginia Tech University

Benefits to the Enthusiast

Assuming, of course, that we still get to flog our hydrocarbon quaffing, three-pedaled, drive-by-no-wire relics on public roads, and that there are automakers that will continue to offer for sale cars and trucks that appeal to our baser natures, the advent of autonomous vehicles could be a great thing for those of us that love driving. No longer will the texting Corolla driver be occupying the passing lane at one m per h under the speed limit, oblivious to the scads of drivers shooting dirty looks as they zip past on the right. No more will semis practice their delicate, synchronized sumo ballet, one trying to pass the others over the course of ten miles up long, gentle grades. Autonomous cars will surely prefer major interstates, leaving the back roads more vacant for our never-ending pursuit of lateral gs. And, Mr. or Ms. Enthusiast, if you also happen to be a commuter, traveler, parent, drinker/smoker, or if you will one day be old, you can benefit from the aforementioned freedoms whenever your heart may desire, if you purchase or rent a car equipped with this new autononimity.

Regardless of your personal thoughts on this new technology, the change is happening my friends, and it’s best if we accept it and learn how we can continue to freely exercise our enthusiastic endeavors in, amongst and between the coming autonomobiles.

David Lange
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Original article published at RightFootDown.com.

wiffleballtony > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 01/14/2016 at 11:45

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To me the biggest issue that people fail to see in the autonomous car utopia is how many people get motion sickness. If you’re the type of person who can’t read in the car and such, you’re doomed to hours of nothingness or nausea. Some people get sick if they are a passenger.

I also believe that Googles interest in this isn’t altruistic. It’s another method for them to get data on us for marketing purposes.

Wheelerguy > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 01/14/2016 at 11:45

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So apparently davesaddiction has a (pretty swank) real name. So now I say: Thank you for this article, David Lange.

Also, maybe it’s time we badger for autonomobiles for a different reason?

The Auto-Pod: Now you’ll never be driving distracted. Something along those lines.

Aside: How much productivity is too much productivity?

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > Wheelerguy 01/14/2016 at 11:55

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You’re very welcome for this article, Guy of the Wheeler clan. Never in my life has anything I’ve possessed been defined as swank, so I thank you for that.

Since about half of new car commercials talk about cars paying attention because you weren’t, that’s probably not a bad strategy.

The productivity question is a really good one, because many of these commuters surely will be working during their drives now, instead of having some time to think (hopefully about things other than work). A hopeful scenario is that you can “punch in” for work as soon as you get into your car, getting credit for the time spent working while on the way to work, but that’s never the way it works out...

Wheelerguy > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 01/14/2016 at 11:59

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One thing I do want to see before the Autonomotive Singularity rises: Five years, five seasons, of the greatest racing across every class of motorsport. Every supercar and hypercar gets its own racing version (and owners can put their cars against each other), F1 and LMP get idealized rules and regulations, GT3 fully becomes part of WRC and is side-by-side with the best hatch-based WRC cars, reviving the Carrera Panamericana and Mille Miglia, an all-year, all-season, cross-planet Valhalla Run for the rally raid, a you-can’t-guess-they-re-88 Rossi, Marquez, Lorenzo and Iannone riding in MotoGP, and with performance cars, wagons, and hatches from almost every marque, as well as back-to-basics machines and their performance versions forming a fitting backdrop for an end of an era.

Of course it’s probably gonna end with a whimper, but I maintain hope.

And one more thing: an ultra-test. Make it a movie.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > wiffleballtony 01/14/2016 at 12:00

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Very good point. Buy stock in Dramamine, perhaps?

Google’s interest is surely to earn more billions of dollars. If they sell you the car, and the internet connection inside it, they have access to any data that flows through that connection during your trip. Will make many of their services (search, maps, reviews) more useful and therefore more valuable.

Wheelerguy > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 01/14/2016 at 12:02

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Wheelerguy isn’t a clan, it’s a species. I have to explain it some time, but I gotta sleep.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > Wheelerguy 01/14/2016 at 12:05

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I love it. And going a step further, all traffic laws should also be repealed for the final month of human driving. Before we completely give over control to the safe, synchronized operation of robots, we’re going to have one last blast to drive as fast as we want, shred as much rubber as possible and be as reckless as our will or conscience will allow.

Most sane people will stay off the roads that last month.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > Wheelerguy 01/14/2016 at 12:07

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I think genus is the correct term, with many species contained within.

Wheelerguy > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 01/14/2016 at 12:14

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We’re gonna use that one month for THE FINAL ROAD TRIP. Every performance car, sports, super, hyper, modified, time attack and hillclimb, and every race car, all of them will be accurately-scanned to be loaded in a game/time machine, then let loose to wherever they want to be, roaring engines, shrilling drivetrains, screeching, smoking tires, jumps, parade or full-on competition.

Addendum: keep the layouts of street circuits intact. Le Mans, Long Beach, Monaco, Macau, Portrero de los Funes, name it.

472CID > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 01/14/2016 at 12:20

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Of course I’m in a suit and tie playing scrabble with the family in our auto-bubble, what do I look like? a farmer?

Wheelerguy > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 01/14/2016 at 12:20

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Addendum: televise it and stream it, the whole month.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > Wheelerguy 01/14/2016 at 12:21

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This is getting good.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > Wheelerguy 01/14/2016 at 12:21

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I think the Dakar crew can handle it. Recaps of the best action every night.

Wheelerguy > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 01/14/2016 at 12:23

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Non-stop stream.

Wheelerguy > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 01/14/2016 at 12:25

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If only certain presenters were able to live long enough to see it happen...

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > 472CID 01/14/2016 at 12:26

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Haha - so glad I found this image. And it’s not Scrabble. Dominoes, perhaps? And Dad is clearly on a much higher plane than the others, so he’s only observing (while he smokes a pipe, I can only assume). The ashtray is a great relic, and the paper airplane is a nice touch. There’s so much room for activities!

Wheelerguy > 472CID 01/14/2016 at 12:26

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An Auto-Pod with tailfins, no less.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > Wheelerguy 01/14/2016 at 12:27

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Yeah, that too.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > Wheelerguy 01/14/2016 at 12:29

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Yeah, the digitized download and replication of Jeremy Clarkson’s brain just isn’t the same. Its pop culture references have gotten quite stale.

472CID > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 01/14/2016 at 12:39

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The father looks on while his underlings family amuses themselves with a trivial game. The 1950 were an odd time in the American family dynamic.

wiffleballtony > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 01/14/2016 at 12:40

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They could advertise to you while in the car and suggest items based on route and destination.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > wiffleballtony 01/14/2016 at 12:52

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Before long they’re going to be putting ideas in your head, literally.

wiffleballtony > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 01/14/2016 at 12:53

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Last thing I need is encouragement to make bad decisions like swinging by KFC.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > wiffleballtony 01/14/2016 at 13:00

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Google Now: Tony, you are approaching a KFC on your right. Your brain told me not to tell you, but your heart told me otherwise...

wiffleballtony > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 01/14/2016 at 13:15

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Re calculating route to hospital. Groupon has a deal on heart bypasses. Press ok to accept.

Chan - Mid-engine with cabin fever > Wheelerguy 01/14/2016 at 13:19

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Too much productivity is when work gets outside work hours on a regular basis.

The work culture on the US coasts is already “too productive,” and sociopaths who happen to be in positions of power tend to expect it as the norm. A few times a year is an acceptable frequency of extraordinary situations. Three times a week is not, and employees in a decent job market have choices.

JR1 > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 01/14/2016 at 14:07

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I think another benefit (although I may never live to see it) will be one day people just won’t know how to drive without their autonomous butlers. Therefore cars built today or say 50 years ago will be not only less in demand but also more accessible because an elite few will take the time and dedication needed to learn how to drive them.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > JR1 01/14/2016 at 14:19

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Very interesting. The percentage of people who can drive a manual transmission is already dropping precipitously in the U.S. If some people feel they don’t have any reason to learn to drive, they won’t ever learn that skill.

The demand question is an interesting one. Not sure how that might play out.

ly2v8-Brian > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 01/14/2016 at 15:13

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My .02. Autonomous cars are fucking stupid. If people are that willing to not drive than lets work on getting those folks and their cars of the road with better transit options. Not a snowball’s chance in hell I will ever buy a car that drives itself.

JR1 > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 01/14/2016 at 15:38

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A larger portion of people might up the demand for cars but I imagine people (generally lazy) won’t learn the skill.

CivoLee > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 01/14/2016 at 23:49

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I can’t wait until an autonomous car gets confused and crashes (as in computer crash) and kills a whole bunch of people and the whole idea goes in the garbage where it belongs.

Then maybe more people will learn to appreciate cars!

Ken.Moromisato > wiffleballtony 02/10/2017 at 10:09

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But what’s the difference from the common taxi/uber service then?