Driving

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I had my first car for eight years, it was a new Honda Civic. I'm currently two years into my second car, a new Kia Forte. In about five years, I'll probably end up getting another new one. What would that look like five years from now?

Will it be a self-driving car? Or, would I even need to buy a car? Waymo, hit the streets officially in my city last December. And the first product they plan to roll out is a subscription service for your commute to work. If a car payment is $400-500 per month with insurance, even if the monthly subscription was around $100-200, it would sure sound a lot better. As would being chauffeured to work instead of dealing with the commute. And if you need to take a trip somewhere outside the city, you can always just rent a car to drive.

What's going to be most interesting about autonomous cars besides the overall safety to us all, is what a city would look like. With services like what Waymo would offer, fewer of us would need to own cars which will lead to less traffic on roads and less need for parking. Or there will be autonomous shuttle services in a similar vain. Toyota announced one they're working on at this year's CES. Imagine what a city like New York would look like with autonomous vehicles on the road!

Posted January 16th, 2018