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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   Printer-friendly
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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  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 13 2017, @04:23PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 13 2017, @04:23PM (#596254)

    Us pertrol heads will be around for as long as we can afford it.

    No one cares. Really. Because 99% of people don't care. Which means only 1% of you petrol heads will be left, which doesn't matter, really. You can continue to drive as long as you drive safely. The comments made were about the other 99% who will pick the convenient, cheaper option to get from point A to point B.

    There's no experience better than nailing a corner, feeling the car grip and booting it out of a turn.

    You should only do this in one place - on the track, where if you fuck up, it's not innocent bystanders that can get hurt.

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