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Former General Motors Vice Chair Bob Lutz: Kiss the Good Times Goodbye

posted by martyb on Monday November 13 2017, @11:00AM   
from the I-prefer-the-Age-of-Aquarius dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

Bob Lutz, former General Motors Vice Chair, opines:

It saddens me to say it, but we are approaching the end of the automotive era.

The auto industry is on an accelerating change curve. For hundreds of years, the horse was the prime mover of humans and for the past 120 years it has been the automobile.

Now we are approaching the end of the line for the automobile because travel will be in standardized modules.

The end state will be the fully autonomous module with no capability for the driver to exercise command. You will call for it, it will arrive at your location, you'll get in, input your destination and go to the freeway.
...
The vehicles, however, will no longer be driven by humans because in 15 to 20 years — at the latest — human-driven vehicles will be legislated off the highways.

The tipping point will come when 20 to 30 percent of vehicles are fully autonomous. Countries will look at the accident statistics and figure out that human drivers are causing 99.9 percent of the accidents.

Is he right? Is the age of the automobile coming to an end?

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Original Submission

• Re:You can take my ICE from my cold dead hands! Re:You can take my ICE from my cold dead hands! (Score: 1, Redundant) by Runaway1956 on Monday November 13 2017, @04:52PM (1 child)

  by Runaway1956 (2926) on Monday November 13 2017, @04:52PM (#596290) Journal

  If your dirt road is like my dirt road, it is actually two lane. Everyone who drives on it feels compelled to drive right down the center of the road, for poorly understood reasons like, "the ride is smoother" or "don't want to scratch the car on the limbs sticking out". A trip or three up and down the road with a weed eater takes care of the scratching nonsense. And, if the full width of the road is actually used, the county employee who grades the road will actually grade the width of the road. Personally, I use one lane when I come home, and I use the other lane when I leave home. Pretty much everyone else only sees on lane, right in the middle.

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• Re:You can take my ICE from my cold dead hands! (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday November 13 2017, @08:22PM

  by JoeMerchant (3937) on Monday November 13 2017, @08:22PM (#596429)

  Ours is right at 10' wide, dirt tracks with grass on either side and down the middle... half of it is a bit wider, maybe 18-20', but that's quasi-paved and bumpy. There are places where you can pull into the grass to get past each other, turnouts into driveways, and spots where somebody is just going to have to back up.

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