Not My Car You Don't

It is against my knee jerk liberal instincts to say so, but to get me out of my car you must first pry my cold dead hands from the steering wheel and tug my stiffened foot from the gas pedal.  I'm too old to walk, pedal or skate and trains and buses only go where they want to go.

Almost all Americans – and a growing number of Chinese –  feel this way. You can see that this is so, to paraphrase an old cliche, by watching how we go, not how we "blow." We love our cars more than the lone cowboy loved his horse.  And we are faithful lovers.

Our politicians know this, which, for example, is why the Florida Lege* "forgot" twice to endorse the Central Florida commuter rail plan, leaving $300 million in federal funds on the table, until the Great Recession hit and a flood of federal stimulus money was poised to pour upon the heads of thirsty people.  They knew in their hearts that we wouldn’t ride those rails, not enough, not yet, not even to save the environment or our own sorry species.  (Then, of course, Governor Scott killed the whole deal to the delight of California, which got the money.)

The sum of pollution, congestion, sprawl, mayhem, and rising seas and gas prices doesn’t, as of now, out weigh the memory of adolescent thrills; the pride of owning wheels, and the continuing ease, apparent economy and undoubted flexibility of moving you, yours and your stuff around on your own schedule.

Face it: most days we rather enjoy that lengthy commute, alone with our privacy, solitude, thoughts, fantasies and music. Will $4 a gallon gas induce enough of us to join the traditional car pool -- let alone catch a bus? Not on your private suburban life!

But we must also face this: our present course is unsustainable. What must we do? Painful and expensive things.

First, accept the verdict of our own actions. The car, which may yet kill us, has overwhelmingly won us. We take the train some places, such as underneath Manhattan type cities and through populated parts of Europe and Japan -- but not into our hearts, and only for routine commutes or the occasional pleasure trip.

Second, make peace with the automobile. This does not mean unconditional surrender. We are more resourceful than that. We are already on track to switch to hybrid vehicles, soon to be plug-ins or the occasional all-electrics . Unlike in the 1970's we need to stay on track – with higher gas taxes if needed.

Beyond  hybrid cars we have two potent negotiating strategies vis a vies the old Detroit traditions: substitution and reinvention.

If you are at all Internet savvy you know already that the most economical and eco friendly trip is the one not taken. Increasingly, we can and do substitute communication for transportation. Ever more face-to-face meetings, family events, financial dealings and business conferences can be virtual, versus actual, given enough cheap band width and the right electronics for communication and display. SKYP can be just like being there.

This incipient trend needs an investment nudge from government. Universal Internet service, if not free then subsidized enough to be affordable, can and should connect even the very poor to the rest of society and lessen their dependence on the oldest gas guzzlers on the road. Nobody should ever need to transport just information -- or  travel just for face time.

Reinvention is a slippery concept. Is it akin to revolution or more like evolution? The automobile itself was a revolutionary idea, but the transformation of the horseless carriage into the beloved buggy of today has been evolutionary, with steady improvements -- in cars and roads -- over decades.

More of the same can in time turn braking, accelerating and steering over to an artificial intelligence that is now growing in the evolving electronic circuits and micro-processors fast polulating our cars and trucks. In partnership with ever more intelligent roadways that are linked by satellites with traffic management computers, our new smart cars will eventually become the better drivers.

Gradually, almost imperceptibly, we will turn driving over to our electronic doppelganger.  One day the brag will be "Well, we drove all the way here, over 10 miles through traffic, and never once touched the steering wheel!"

The experiments are already on the roads, possibly near you.  Examples: 

DOD is experimenting with driver-less vehicles for ground warfare (Google DARPA Urban Challenge), while the Air Force flies drones by virtual pilot in combat today. Like the Internet before it, the personal vehicle of the future may well emerge as a by product of defense R and D.

The driver-less vehicle challenge by ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency) was won by a team from Stanford.  Their prize: $2 million.  Now that same winning team has joined with Google, the software giant which collects much of the mapping and positioning data,  Google's test cars are on public roads today.  For now their test vehicles come with a conventional driver behind a standard steering wheel, which he never touches unless he has to -- a backup Plan B that is less and less frequently necessary.

For all this progress, cars without drivers is not something we want to rush into. To begin with we could settle for empty cars that drive  themselves to where they belong next:  to a parking place, back to the rental car office, back home for the convenience of the one car family,  to Joe's Spreading Chesnut Tree Auto Repair/ Gas Station for a tune-up/fill-up, to the drive-in liquor emporium/pizza place to pick up drinks/dinner, etc.

Right now the answer is that we can’t allow an empty car to move itself from where it has been abandoned to where it is needed. Or trust a driver-less vehicle on a public road, let alone in a school zone.  But that will change by use of radar, lasers, motion censors, cameras, global positioning satellites, smart software and a redundance of  interconnected microprocessors.

A next step might be car sharing.  That abandoned car goes to the next person needing wheels. However we might not enjoy making do with whatever car happens to be available when needed.  Even the lone driver is typically surrounded by her "stuff."  The experience might be more like changing planes, and who would enjoy that even without a walk between gates.

Along the way cars will gradually become smart enough to prevent us from killing and maiming each other by the  thousands each year, and won't that be a blessing.  Your insurance agent knows that robot vehicles can be improved much faster than humans, perhaps even to the point that they can detect  and even prevent insurance fraud along with more legitimate accidents.

Finally, when cars are more aware of themselves and each other than we can hope to be, steering wheels and brake and gas pedals can begin to vanish from the interior of all kinds of moving vehicles.  More spacious and comfortable interiors will inhabit integrated trains of lighter more fuel efficient cars and trucks traveling steadily at swift uniform speeds down highways built for the traffic.

Elsewhere, country roads  and scenic by-ways will beckon, for even the "driver" will be able to enjoy the passing views unless sleep or other relaxing pleasures intrude.  Hmm.  Perhaps it's time to let the crystal ball go dark.  But keep your eyes open and your hands atop the steering wheel -- for now.

*Short for Legislature, a useful coinage of the late great writer, Molly Ivins, who is missed.