Opinion: Owning a Car Will Soon Be as Quaint as Owning a Horse
I will die before I buy another car. I don't say that because I am particularly old or sick, but because I am at the front end of one of the next major secular trends in tech. Owning a car will soon be like owning a horse — a quaint hobby, an interesting rarity and a cool thing to take out for a spin on the weekend.
Before you object, let me be clear: I will drive in cars until I die. But the concept of actually purchasing, maintaining, insuring and garaging an automobile in the next few decades? Finished.
[...] It's obviously an easier decision if you live near a major metropolitan area, like I do, where the alternatives — cars and then car pools and then bikes and now scooters — are myriad. (Why, by the way, this is a revolution led by private companies instead of public transportation is an important topic for another day.) In other countries, often with denser populations, there are even more ideas bubbling up, from auto-rickshaws and motorbike taxis to new bus services.
Obviously, the biggest change will be the advent of truly autonomous vehicles, which are still years or even decades in the future. But in the meantime I am going to lean into this future all I can, and will chronicle the efforts over the next year, its costs and its benefits and how I get there. Or not.
(Score: 2) by Hartree on Monday March 25 2019, @07:38AM (5 children)
Be careful who you tell how "quaint" owning a horse is. A lot of horse owners (especially the ladies) can be pretty fanatical. The tongue lashing will be memorable. :)
(Score: 3, Funny) by maxwell demon on Monday March 25 2019, @07:47AM (3 children)
How quaint! :-)
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Monday March 25 2019, @08:02AM (2 children)
Plus if you want to go meta, if you do quaintly own your own horse, do you plan to rent a car every time you need to cart around any tack?
(Score: 4, Informative) by Hartree on Monday March 25 2019, @08:06AM (1 child)
You'd do better to rent a truck. How else will you pull the horse trailer?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by maxwell demon on Tuesday March 26 2019, @05:24AM
With horses, of course!
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 25 2019, @02:29PM
Where exactly will said tongue lashing be applied?
*cough*