I like your post, but it's just one (I suspect minority) perspective. Well, because I don't have enough hours in the day to do the things I am supposed to do already. And because any time I want to visit someone or something from my home I have to kill 5-8 hours staring at the same highway I've stared at a thousand times before. I also have to risk my life because it's one of the most dangerous highways in the world. Because after the hundredth time doing this, driving irrevocably became a chore. I think you live in the east, yeah? Remember that. Driverless cars were fucking made for the great plains. Am I going to use the driverless mode on a beautiful country road? (maybe -- I like to be able to look at everything I drive by without hindrance) --but probably not. Am I going to use it in the city? Probably not ... unless, wait, there's tons of traffic like there always is; I can't stand driving in traffic, no one can. Another point: I get the meditative feeling as much as you do -- but some people get it and fall asleep. Cars simply aren't safe. ad absurdum: someday we invent teleportation. Great! 95% of the time I'm going to use it. But the 5% I don't will be the time I spend traveling, looking at things, etc -- and I'll value that time so much more than I do now, because it's a luxury rather than a necessity.Why would you ever want to take that experience from me and give me the empty, bored, unchalleneged feeling of sitting in a plane or train, not in control of any element of the trip, a passive object sitting there and rotting? Why would you want to take active growth and engagement and replace it with the need "to kill time"?
See and this is another aspect of it that I don't like! They are talking about using cars as "movable meeting spaces." You can do your work while you drive! I think that's awful. We already cram so much work into our lives, please don't take my car and make it a workspace as well. It is like that article about - the greatest mystery is why we fill our downtime back up with work.
Something my dad has always said and that really sticks with me is that all accidents are by nature preventable. In fact from the name itself, "accident," you can derive that notion. It's something I wrestle with because I think it's a very hard line to take, I mean I hit a deer with my car - could I have prevented that? Can you prevent being rear-ended? There may very well be times when the accident is completely someone else's fault and you couldn't have prevented it but I think they are rare and far between. That is one of the reasons I am so "tuned in" when I drive. That's one reason I see it as a challenge to always improve.
The people who get behind the wheel and mentally fall asleep are idiots. Cars aren't safe because people do idiotic things while driving them. I'm not pretending I don't multitask more than I should or with things I shouldn't touch sometimes: I do. I look at my phone sometimes. I hold it up so I can see the GPS or whatever.
You raise fair points about the plains. I don't know. I love a good two-hour drive down to the beach but even then I can choose a more rural highway over an eight-lane monstrosity. I like having the limitations of my perspective pointed out to me. And yes. I live very close to farm country. It's beautiful.
Write poetry while being chauffeured around. Unlike flagamuffin, I have no desire to ever "retire." Like, no joke... not ever. I want to continue to produce stuff.. .music, writing, businesses, moments with family etc. If you can cut out hours of time in my life that was previously spent mundanely operating a vehicle.... please do.We already cram so much work into our lives, please don't take my car and make it a workspace as well.
Chris Rock does a bit about people with jobs and people with careers. If you enjoy your work and literally take joy from it, why not do it while commuting? That would be amazing for me.
I can read books while I drive. I can write music while I drive. I can take a nap while I drive. I can masturbate while I drive (?!). I'm the one who's always spouting off about retiring when I'm 35 on here -- I'm not about to spend extra time working. And the result is that driving is statistically the most dangerous thing you'll probably do this year. Let's change that. It really does just depend. I'm on interstates all the time because that's the only thing for it. One time traffic was really bad so I took winding frontage roads instead for four hours, going about 90 so I wouldn't lose any time overall -- that was fun. But it's not the norm sadly.You can do your work while you drive! I think that's awful. We already cram so much work into our lives, please don't take my car and make it a workspace as well. It is like that article about - the greatest mystery is why we fill our downtime back up with work.
The people who get behind the wheel and mentally fall asleep are idiots. Cars aren't safe because people do idiotic things while driving them.
You raise fair points about the plains. I don't know. I love a good two-hour drive down to the beach but even then I can choose a more rural highway over an eight-lane monstrosity. I like having the limitations of my perspective pointed out to me. And yes. I live very close to farm country. It's beautiful.