4 ms·

So in the future, what happens when no one owns a car and we're all dependent on summoning a self-driving car to get any real distance from home? Will we have

by sverige 10y ago

So in the future, what happens when no one owns a car and we're all dependent on summoning a self-driving car to get any real distance from home? Will we have internet arguments about the rights of people to go where they like? Will the arguments become as fine-grained as "Well, yes, if you want to go to the rally to protest the cuts in UBI, you really should expect that Uber will send one, but it's very difficult and expensive to build out the system for such peak demand events. And ultimately, that just cuts into the funds available for UBI. Why not just register your complaint on the website at https://myvote.ubifunding.gov https://myvote.ubifunding.gov? Or you can just click the button on facebook." Followed by blog posts about what a "Sunday drive" was and comments reminiscing how readers used to take drives just to explore and lamenting that this is no longer practical. I'm all against surrendering autonomy to machines and the corporations who own them.

maxerickson 10y ago
Energy is staged to get cheaper and be cleaner than it is now. So if we are rationing it more in the future, something more went wrong than Uber.
jellicle 10y ago
Protestors will probably be on the Federal "no-drive" list or the private one maintained by ChexSystems, so you can protest anywhere you want, as long as it is within walking distance. It'll be funny when people are put on the list while away from home and have to figure out how to get 50 miles back to home when no vehicle will carry them.
- rjsw 10y ago
  Isn't there a line in one of the Dune books about the best way to keep the people under control is to make them walk.
usrusr 10y ago
From the car-free point of view, you already surrendered autonomy when you scaled your regular transport needs to the point where they can't be easily fulfilled by walking.
- jessaustin 10y ago
  ...and cycling!
  - JoeAltmaier 10y ago
    Which can satisfy almost the same trip distances as cars, most days.
- Godel_unicode 10y ago
  You appear to be arguing that cars and highways made people less free?
  - usrusr 10y ago
    I was arguing autonomy, not lateral movement. But sure, also less free in a certain, obviously very limited way: many people are never more than a few hundred yards away from their car. They get perfectly used to that state, but for someone used to transporting just their own person around (using whatever third party technology available), always having to return to the parking spot would feel like a ball and chain. This is arguably a much smaller limitation than reliance on third party transportation, but the thing is that on this level, freedom is entirely subjective. To a "minimalist living" advocate, freedom is being able to fit your life in a suitcase, to a stuff collector freedom is having every thing you ever had available just an attic dive away. Giving up a freedom you are used to have feels much bigger than gaining a freedom you have learned to do without. emacs vs vi.
mason240 10y ago
>So in the future, what happens when no one owns a car We will still own personal cars, for all the same reasons we do now. The percentage of ownership will drop, but I think most 2 car households will still own at least one car.
- JoeAltmaier 10y ago
  Millennials are not buying cars. Its changing already. The percentage will drop as previous generations die off? Then settle near zero.
  - mason240 10y ago
    Some millennials without kids are not buying cars. As soon they start a family, they do. The only difference with my generation is that the age of things like starting a family or buying a house has jumped up a few years.
  - refurb 10y ago
    Millennials — especially the oldest ones — are these days buying cars in big numbers. They just had a late start. Now the largest generation in the U.S., millennials bought 4 million cars and trucks in the U.S. last year, second only to the baby boomers, according to J.D. Power's Power Information Network, which defines millennials as those between 21 and 38 in 2015. Millennials' share of the new car market jumped to 28 percent. In the country's biggest car market, California, millennials outpaced boomers for the first time.[1] [1]http://www.businessinsider.com/everything-we-thought-about-millennials-not-buying-cars-was-wrong-2016-3 http://www.businessinsider.com/everything-we-thought-about-m...
deleted 10y ago
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by sverige 10y ago

maxerickson 10y ago

Energy is staged to get cheaper and be cleaner than it is now. So if we are rationing it more in the future, something more went wrong than Uber.

jellicle 10y ago

Protestors will probably be on the Federal "no-drive" list or the private one maintained by ChexSystems, so you can protest anywhere you want, as long as it is within walking distance. It'll be funny when people are put on the list while away from home and have to figure out how to get 50 miles back to home when no vehicle will carry them.

rjsw 10y ago
Isn't there a line in one of the Dune books about the best way to keep the people under control is to make them walk.

usrusr 10y ago

From the car-free point of view, you already surrendered autonomy when you scaled your regular transport needs to the point where they can't be easily fulfilled by walking.

jessaustin 10y ago
...and cycling!
- JoeAltmaier 10y ago
  Which can satisfy almost the same trip distances as cars, most days.
Godel_unicode 10y ago
You appear to be arguing that cars and highways made people less free?
- usrusr 10y ago
  I was arguing autonomy, not lateral movement. But sure, also less free in a certain, obviously very limited way: many people are never more than a few hundred yards away from their car. They get perfectly used to that state, but for someone used to transporting just their own person around (using whatever third party technology available), always having to return to the parking spot would feel like a ball and chain. This is arguably a much smaller limitation than reliance on third party transportation, but the thing is that on this level, freedom is entirely subjective. To a "minimalist living" advocate, freedom is being able to fit your life in a suitcase, to a stuff collector freedom is having every thing you ever had available just an attic dive away. Giving up a freedom you are used to have feels much bigger than gaining a freedom you have learned to do without. emacs vs vi.

mason240 10y ago

>So in the future, what happens when no one owns a car We will still own personal cars, for all the same reasons we do now. The percentage of ownership will drop, but I think most 2 car households will still own at least one car.

JoeAltmaier 10y ago
Millennials are not buying cars. Its changing already. The percentage will drop as previous generations die off? Then settle near zero.
- mason240 10y ago
  Some millennials without kids are not buying cars. As soon they start a family, they do. The only difference with my generation is that the age of things like starting a family or buying a house has jumped up a few years.
- refurb 10y ago
  Millennials — especially the oldest ones — are these days buying cars in big numbers. They just had a late start. Now the largest generation in the U.S., millennials bought 4 million cars and trucks in the U.S. last year, second only to the baby boomers, according to J.D. Power's Power Information Network, which defines millennials as those between 21 and 38 in 2015. Millennials' share of the new car market jumped to 28 percent. In the country's biggest car market, California, millennials outpaced boomers for the first time.[1] [1]http://www.businessinsider.com/everything-we-thought-about-millennials-not-buying-cars-was-wrong-2016-3 http://www.businessinsider.com/everything-we-thought-about-m...

deleted 10y ago

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