It depends to a large extent on those of us who love to drive that human driving is not prohibited; Autonomous cars don't drink, they don't take drugs, they don't get distracted...
I admit it: I love dystopian stories, chronicles, and all those that show us what the future could be like. And this has happened to me since I first saw 'Back to the Future'.
I like them above all because I have always thought that imagining what the future might be like provides the necessary tools to be able to change it... in the event that the future is not exactly rosy.
This mention of dystopia is motivated by the fact that looking back, returning to the present, and trying to see what lies ahead in motoring terms, things look like this.
Perhaps someone thinks, and rightly so, that today I woke up a catastrophist. However, for some time now I have been detecting signs that could support my theory.
On the one hand, I see the figures for car sales in Spain in the month of April, and although they have grown compared to 2022, the truth is that we did not even come close to reaching the figures from before the pandemic.
Granted, you can't take a part for the whole and Spain is what it is: different.
And what about the year 2022? Good question, dear reader. Well, last year production increased slightly worldwide to exceed 68 million cars manufactured. Let's go better, right? I have my doubts. The killjoy is here… Yes, I admit it. But if we look at the graph, a certain slowdown was already being detected before the pandemic.
Could it be that the so-called peak car has been reached (peak or inflection point from which a phase of decline in production and sales of new cars will begin)? No, but we're getting close.
Reasons? Changes in the habits of the new generations, the unstoppable inflation that affects financing, and energy prices, the irruption and imposition of the electric car (much more expensive than an internal combustion one and that distances us, as Carlos Tavares, CEO of Stellantis, even to the middle classes to be able to access personal mobility).
Nor can we forget the efforts of many governments -among them the Spanish one through the Ministry of Ecological Transition- to ensure that cars gradually disappear from the streets of cities.
And if we add to the above a technology that has been flying over for years and which it seems that we have become accustomed to ignoring autonomous driving, perhaps I will not end up walking so wrong.
To add to the derision, this technology carries a worrying derivative: in a few years, once autonomous driving is deployed, the car will end up becoming a commodity, that is, a fungible good destined for commercial use, regardless of who owned it. manufactured (goodbye marks!). The only thing that will matter is that to go from A to B we will do it in artifact C.
Man, you've crossed two towns! someone will tell me. Of course, I have passed, but it will end up happening. And if not, from time to time. Well, but there is still a long way to go until that moment arrives, you will think, dear reader. I hope that too.
And I hope so more than anything because I love driving, but we must be aware that if we are not responsible as drivers, in the end, we will be condemned to be driven by autonomous vehicles.
Because let's be clear about one thing: an autonomous car does not drink, does not take drugs, does not do stupid things at the wheel, does not crash with other vehicles, does not get distracted, does not send WhatsApp messages while driving... among many other reprehensible behaviors of the human condition.
All those accidents, injuries, and deaths, in addition to being a human drama, involve multimillion-dollar costs, and there will come a time when States and insurers take advantage of technology to reverse this situation.
It is in our hands, and never better said, that we avoid giving the finishing touch to the automobile world as we know it and that the car, like the horse, becomes a luxury and minority means of transport that can only be used in certain controlled places, such as circuits.
Nothing would make me sadder than to say, “Do you remember
when we used to drive? What times!”
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