Motoring as we know it is dying....

[Jim Breazeale]

Had to look up the meaning of "dystopian"

Ciao

Jim

[MikeM]

Had to look up the meaning of "dystopian"

Ciao

Jim

haha..had to google that one for clarification...for me a world of only electric cars would be "a state in which everything is unpleasant or bad" so my 911 and driving it are safe for now.
as usual Chris, nice read....thanks

[Gburner]

In the last decade computers have homogenized track driving skills with paddle shifting and auto blip match rev downshifting.
Now even the best heal and toe driver is at a disadvantage to the new computer controlled shifted cars.

I'm ok with that as I get older I may be able to track a couple extra years with the computer aided cars.
Atm still enjoying my no nannies cars very much.

On the autonomous car I was at first against those too.
Until I realized that driving was no longer a freedom when stuck in heavy city traffic, so I like the idea of autonomous pods in big cities.

I hope to live to see the day while traveling thru LA when all the autonomous cars will merge perfectly on a first come first served basis.
Can you imagine all the cars/computers driving, lane changing, holding speeds speeds perfectly in a completely courteous and safe fashion?
If it were ever to be true then driving or be it actually being transported in a pod may be less frustrating than actually driving thru big cities.

I may sound pro autonomous but at present all 6 of our sports or race cars have manual transmissions.

[72targa]

Lest we forget...

[Chuck Miller]

Lest we forget...

Hey Peter, we still have two of those displayed outside our cafeteria at work.... Oooops, EX-WORK.... ... Whoa it's only been 3 1/2 years...

[Gburner]

been 3 1/2 years...

I'm getting this vibe Chuck.
https://youtu.be/fiAQIddpO6Y

[Chuck Miller]

I'm getting this vibe Chuck.
https://youtu.be/fiAQIddpO6Y

Exactly Mikey....

BTW - As long as I'm/we're able...
I just hope autonomous aren't on the same roads we travel..........

[Jim Garfield]

I think your view of a dystopian future is a bit too bleak. Guessing about what is coming next has always been a popular past time, and more often than not, completely wrong. The current obsession with self driving cars will probably be implemented in some capacity. Sometime. But I think the legal obstacles will be almost insurmountable in the short term. In the meantime, I'll keep driving.

The Future circa 1920:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czr-98yo6RU

[CPRSteve]

Kris, I was debating commenting on your article on SW. I guess I'll comment on it here instead. Thanks for your article and, as always, I enjoyed reading.

What is motoring to you? To me, motoring seems to be the act of driving with purpose other than simply transportation.

Motoring in that sense has been dying for a while, at least around Southern California and the American Southwest. Small arteries between point A and point B are heavily pockmarked and almost impossible to cruise on at night. During the day, the gymkhana is dodging potholes- not dancing through corners. One of my favorite mountain roads is in a constant state of disrepair and the ridges created by semis get so high as to scrape my anti-roll bar in the (stock ride height) BMW. Trips that were previously windows-down, one-arm-out-the-window fun runs are now bumper-to-bumper crap filled with soccer moms paying more attention to their phones or kids than the road, clapped-out beaters weaving drunkenly down the road, and people of all ages disengaged from the act of driving.

It's due to the traffic and lack of care that autonomy comes into play, both good and bad. Autonomy removes the dangerous from the road- it replaces a barely-there person with a 100% focused machine with 360-degree vision and nearly instantaneous reflexes. Combine that with autonomous cars' ability to drive while the passengers are inebriated and you have a win-win for safety.

However, the changes to the road structure may play havoc with people who don't want autonomy nor electric vehicles in their lives. Old roads- the good ones with elevation changes, blind corners, dirt after rains and tar-snake-nastiness and off-camber exits, will start to disappear as they'd be marked as incompatible with current software limitations. They'll either be "repaired" or they'll simply be eliminated. Those are the roads where a drive is followed by a stop and a breather and a pat to the roof of the car.

Slightly off-topic: There's a series of roads, (in particular, I'm talking about Nipton Rd, Ivanpah Rd [which eventually takes you to Route 66], Morning Star Mine Rd, Kelso-Cima Rd and Kelbaker Rd) between just south of Primm and connecting with the I-40, that pass through the remnants of mining towns and little areas that sprang up around railroad tracks. Those roads are motoring roads- you don't take those roads if your sole purpose is transportation, you take I-15 and I-40. You take them for the enjoyment of taking them- the scenery, racing a train, some fast, flowing elevation changes... except for the potholes. Lordhavemercy, the potholes. Those potholes are dark spots of hatred and misery on an otherwise fantastic trip. I don't think those roads would survive the descent into autonomy, and that's an incredibly disturbing thought. I shudder to think of those roads crumbling away, the old houses falling into disrepair and folding in on themselves while people zoom past in their electric egg-mobiles on an optimized highway, sharing the road with unmanned semis and the very occasional (bored) person driving their gasoline car.

[Frank Beck]

Good article Kris but living in AZ I can't relate at all. My carbon footprint continues to grow and I'm confident no one in my lifetime will limit my motoring freedom.

As for the youth? They will get exactly what they deserve.