Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.
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The higher stakes version of vegan meats and driverless cars is going to be embryo selection
For a lot of people, driverless cars is high stakes.
Car culture in its various iterations is about the feeling of freedom, self-sufficiency and control that comes from driving your own vehicle, and incidentally some things that have become associated with it like the sound and feel of a petrol engine going "vroom". I am one of the Motte's resident Euroweenie car-haters, but I get this - part of the reason why I don't own a car is because I can hire the right vehicle for optimum fun each time I go on a road trip - whether that's a Ford Mustang convertible or an 8-seater crossover with one of those wonderful illegal Volkswagen diesel engines that cheat on emissions tests.
A lot of people in a lot of countries have made participating in car culture part of their identity, and Red Tribe Americans have made it part of their tribal identity.
Ubiquitous driverless cars, and particularly driverless cars that are co-ordinated by a central server (and for driverless cars to get significantly more capacity out of urban roads you need that co-ordination) give up all of that. The idea of taking a driverless car out on the open road - even if the open road in question is a moderately congested British motorway - fills me with horror, and I'm not even a proper petrolhead. And (from the point of view of a car culture participant) most of the benefit being that low-status people (kids, drunks, and the decrepit) gain undeserved mobility.
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