How will we drive cars in the future?

[Xmas]

"The future" being the next 20-30 years. While I do think there could be a future where taxi and rail services cover the majority of our transportation needs, it won't be anytime soon.

 

[ShootMyMonkey]

"The future" being the next 20-30 years. While I do think there could be a future where taxi and rail services cover the majority of our transportation needs, it won't be anytime soon.

Steps and progress towards such a system is quite possible in the UK and/or a large part of Europe, Southeast Asia, China, India, Japan, etc.

Hell, there is already construction for a well-connected rail system in Delhi going on right now. Though India has a major problem in making this widespread in that it's a country which often requires commercial and industrial motivation to actually even aim for this sort of thing -- works for Delhi, but you can't quite expect the same of say, Chennai.

I don't even see it as a remote possibility within the US. There are places which are already well-connected through mass transit like Chicago, New York, Washington DC, etc., and they'll probably continue to be so. Regardless, the culture of the United States is one that swings towards personal transportation. People naturally gravitate towards the "freedom" aspect of having personal ownership and personal prerogative over travel. As such, the vision of the future here in the US is going to focus on the improvement of personal cars, and I don't see the rail system or bus and taxi service improving except for the areas where mass transit is already widely used. And even in those areas, if the cars of the future prove to be significant enough improvements (fat chance of that within 20-30 years, but for the sake of argument), it's quite possible that they could displace mass transit even in these well-connected regions, simply due to the fact that people would find that improvement *plus* the added freedom of personal transportation to be more attractive.

 

[Squeak]

Then, to keep us occupied, we'll no doubt have in-car 3D games.... probably a driving simulation.

Yo dauwg! We heard u like cars, so we like put a car in ur car, so u can drive while u drive!
Ur Ride Has Been Pimped!!!

:-l

 

[Bambers]

Steps and progress towards such a system is quite possible in the UK

Don't just look at london. Most of the UK is rubbish at public transport. London has several things that set it apart from the rest of the UK cities that make public transport much more viable including: a existing underground network the victorians built, which admittedly is currently at maximum capacity; a regulated bus service and a population density which is significantly higher than the rest of the UK. The only reason public transport use has gone up in the UK is due to london, remove london and it's actually gone down!

 

[Mariner]

The UK had a fantastic rail service... in Victorian times.

It is generally absolutely shocking these days though. I've used the train in a few European countries and it was invariably cheaper and more punctual than the UK in each of these.

 

[Cheezdoodles]

Modern cars are dangerous by the way - I was in a new Nissan Quashkai II (or however you spell that) and you have no sense of speed at all. It's a very good car, but it's like a lot of other modern cars (Audi) - they invite you to drive extremely fast and you barely notice that you do. Long time ago already my father said he liked driving a mini cooper, because even at 100km/h you get a sense you are going really, really fast.

How do you drive extremely fast in a Quashkai II? Thought the thing had like 140hp.

Side note: maximum throttle in tunnels is fun

 

[kyleb]

In the future we will drive standing up. -Talking Heads