Hello guys,
Here's a quick post about something that's been bothering me for a while. My news feed is flooded with articles about autonomous cars. Automakers, insurers and governments are pushing really, really hard for this to happen, even though the technology is not here yet. There are a lot of false arguments made in favor of autonomous cars and I can dismantle them all, however, in this post we've going to focus on the issue of freedom. Here's what most people don't realize about autonomous cars.
There will be no more freedom of movement with autonomous cars. The government will know where you're going, when, and even prevent you from going somewhere. The companies operating autonomous cars will use your personal mobility information and sell it to the highest bidder that will then use advertising targeted specifically to you. Automakers love autonomous cars because when you're not driving, you could be watching advertising, to become more of a mindless consumer. Insurers love autonomous cars because they'll make even more money off them. Governments love autonomous cars because they can have total control over the population.
With vehicle to vehicle communication being implemented, autonomous cars will act as a bee hive. Your car will be nothing more than a bee in the hive. You won't even be in control of the route your car takes. You won't have any privacy or control. While in the past the autonomous car was a symbol of freedom, of control, of the agency of adulthood, that will be no more. Long gone are the days when the car was freedom, the freedom of becoming an adult, of going anywhere, anytime, on fixing it yourself, of exploring the world in it. With autonomous cars, you won't even be allowed to do any maintenance on it and when those expensive systems fail, let's just say that it gets more quickly in the junkyard.
If people accept the autonomous car as part of everyday life, in the not so distant future, you might wake up one day to find that you're not allowed to drive anymore, that insurance to drive is too expensive, that the government is tracking your every move and can even take control of your car, that your car can be controlled by hackers and you can be kidnapped, that advertising companies know your travels and your personal information and they use that to sell you more crap that you don't need. As far as I'm concerned, this will be a nightmare.
Pictures courtesy of Pixabay