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I feel sorry for all those poor automotive marketers that can no longer pitch based on how well a car handles, performs and drives. What a car actually is will

I feel sorry for all those poor automotive marketers that can no longer pitch based on how well a car handles, performs and drives. What a car actually is will change once they're completely automated, particularly seating configurations and ride comfort more than anything else. Also the need to own a car diminishes, replaced with an on-demand go-anywhere taxi service. Don't need a car? Don't need car garages. Don't need a driveway. Don't need traffic lights or signals or pedestrian crossings. Though there will be the transition period when a glitch launches some poor sod off a bridge. The news will eat it up as how the technology can't be trusted, but will ignore the statistics of casualties from manual vs automated drivers. The same technology will filter through to everything from the military to the pizza delivery guy - just as it already has for the massive mining trucks driving themselves around Australian mine sites. The impact of a 100% driverless car on city layouts would be profound. At some point I'm sure the OH&S arm of the governments will ban all manual-driver cars on the road and such modern day classics we be held in showrooms or farmyard sheds, available only on private roads where no insurer will dare cover.

Swizec 13y ago
Finally my dream will come true! The car I own will be a purely recreational vehicle, set up for rallying or some such. And I can use one of those automated thingamabobs for boring commuting to and fro. Now just to wait and see if this can become a reality within my lifetime.
Qworg 13y ago
Chris Bangle had the idea that future cars will be fleet based, but people will own customizable interiors. These would deploy into the vehicle. You could also have self-assembling cars - individual electric autonomous units of drivetrain. Two wheels and an axle - you call up as many as you'd like. While very future looking, I think these address both the ownership desire and the efficiency benefits.
- eru 13y ago
  But then you'd have to keep your interior around.
hawkharris 13y ago
At some point I'm sure the OH&S arm of the governments will ban all manual-driver cars on the road... I agree. It's interesting to think about how the morality of owning and driving a vehicle will change. When the majority of vehicles are self-driven, driving a car may be considered similar to smoking: those who do it are threatening other people's lives to indulge in a risky personal freedom. The New Yorker wrote an interesting piece exploring the potential moral changes in greater detail: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2012/11/google-driverless-car-morality.html http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2012/11/googl...

Swizec 13y ago

Finally my dream will come true! The car I own will be a purely recreational vehicle, set up for rallying or some such. And I can use one of those automated thingamabobs for boring commuting to and fro. Now just to wait and see if this can become a reality within my lifetime.

Qworg 13y ago

Chris Bangle had the idea that future cars will be fleet based, but people will own customizable interiors. These would deploy into the vehicle. You could also have self-assembling cars - individual electric autonomous units of drivetrain. Two wheels and an axle - you call up as many as you'd like. While very future looking, I think these address both the ownership desire and the efficiency benefits.

eru 13y ago
But then you'd have to keep your interior around.

hawkharris 13y ago

At some point I'm sure the OH&S arm of the governments will ban all manual-driver cars on the road... I agree. It's interesting to think about how the morality of owning and driving a vehicle will change. When the majority of vehicles are self-driven, driving a car may be considered similar to smoking: those who do it are threatening other people's lives to indulge in a risky personal freedom. The New Yorker wrote an interesting piece exploring the potential moral changes in greater detail: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2012/11/google-driverless-car-morality.html http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2012/11/googl...