Even outside of EVs, cars have gotten to the point where you're barely driving them anymore, anyway, you're more of a "human in the loop". You can't really see out of them anymore (other than the windshield, of course), so most people have stopped trying and just rely on the "systems".
* Don't change lanes if the blinky light on your side mirrors tells you not to
* Don't back up unless the image in the backup camera tells you it's safe
* Stop reversing when the beeping from the park distance sensors get too insistent
* AEB, lane departure warning, rear traffic assist radar, etc.
Don't get me wrong, people have used this "old man yells at cloud" point of view to call "real cars" dead for many decades; fuel injection, ABS, automatic transmissions, whatever. But we've definitely gotten to a tipping point where most of the fun is gone.
I'm not saying we should go back to x% more deaths per year by getting rid of XYZ nanny system, I'm just saying car enthusiasm is largely dead in new cars.
Stuffy middle class on up white people killed cities. Stuffy middle class on up white people killed care culture. Stuffy middle class on up white people killed... just about everything.
All those tropes, jokes, memes and other culture crapping on various slices of that broader demographic don't come from nowhere.
I don't think that the new era of 'EV appliance culture' will have any positive impact on urban planning compared to 'car culture'.
There are more vehicles on the roads than ever before, and each of those distracted travellers demands a direct route from home to destination whether they're driving or being driven by a robo-taxi.
Ok. I’m talking about the concerted effort to kill trains and public transit by the auto/oil industry.
LA was beautiful in the 20s. Could have been a world class metropolis instead of a sprawling hellscape of seven lane interstates where it takes 1.5hr to travel 15 miles, choked by pollution.
Go watch Roger Rabbit again. Pay attention to the villain instead of the foxy redhead.
If you want a "raw" driving experience, you need to go on a race track in a "proper" race car. I use the quotes because you could come up with very diffferent definitions for them depending on your particular perspective. Amateur car races are a thing, btw.
I'm glad that all these assistants exist for road vehicles. I think of myself as a fairly disciplined driver (welly who am I kidding, really?), but these systems have saved my bacon more than once over the years.
It's worse with tesla - the Plaid has removed most driver controls.
If you're a car guy and buy a 1000hp+ vehicle, I think you would want a drive select or turn signal stalk.
You can't flash your lights. wipers are not under your control. if you're sticking out into traffic, you don't know if the car will guess correctly that you want to back up... or pull out. nonsense.
* Don't change lanes if the blinky light on your side mirrors tells you not to
* Don't back up unless the image in the backup camera tells you it's safe
* Stop reversing when the beeping from the park distance sensors get too insistent
* AEB, lane departure warning, rear traffic assist radar, etc.
Don't get me wrong, people have used this "old man yells at cloud" point of view to call "real cars" dead for many decades; fuel injection, ABS, automatic transmissions, whatever. But we've definitely gotten to a tipping point where most of the fun is gone.
I'm not saying we should go back to x% more deaths per year by getting rid of XYZ nanny system, I'm just saying car enthusiasm is largely dead in new cars.