Driving in year 2020

For the last 50 years, we human beings had dreamed of the day when our cars will be built with automatic cruising systems, from the moment we stepped into our cars, telling the friendly computer our destination, replied with an estimated time of arrival, and off we go, checking our emails, playing a game of chess or Scrable, or watch a few episodes of Friends and off we go dozing off, and upon arrival, a soft sounding alarm notifying us of our arrival. Soundly, safely.

Let's do a reverse analysis from the above scenario, first off, since we're mostly doing our own little things, little to bother of our surroundings; cars would not need attractive designs, or any sort of branding for that matter, cos it's no longer 'cool' to have a unique car that does the same thing. Next up, 'driver's cars' like BMW or Ferrari would ceased into extinction, as perhaps your computer would've done that power slide without you knowing it, hence again there's no need of a clutch pedal or a 'steering wheel with plenty of feedback'. Driving enjoyment in itself would've gone down the gutter. It'll be something like travelling in trains and commuters, where people who board on their cars merely cared about the destination, as the journey, or course taken was completely not within our controls. Then there's no need for crumple zones or airbags, or seatbelts for that matter, as our cars simply wouldn't collide into each other.

It seems a good thing, as this means there will no longer be road fatalities, where each year, an estimated 25 million people were injured and an estimated 1.4 million people dying from road accidents. Of which 45% of deaths came from Asia countries (Including Russia). Adding to that, plenty of resources could be put for better use, as the total cost of road accidents in the world annually was estimated at a staggering $600 Billion.

But, is it possible to eradicate road fatalities? Will you give up the freedom of driving, the notion of buying a wonderful exotic piece of Italian thoroughbred and actually driving it, stopping by the roadside for a quick photography session of that beautiful scenery? Or hiding your car in some secluded B road for a quick hot sweaty sex? We, as human beings who had gone such lengths to differentiate ourselves to our close cousin Chimpanzees which shares 99% of our genetic DNA; had launched a telescope in outer space where they hadn't even figured out how to start a fire, or even wanting to know what does it do. Our advancement relies entirely on our spirit of embracing excitement, the urge to explore further, going a little bit faster, farther, higher. To quote from Axiom's Captain in WALL-E, "We don't want to survive, we want to live."