My 2018 Honda CRV is about halfway capable of driving itself. With Lane Assist and adaptive cruise control it can travel the Interstate with very little input from me. First time I saw it in action, I was amazed. Makes long car trips (remember them?) much easier. Because I’m older, I still keep my hands on the wheel and my foot ready to hit the brake. Studies have shown that younger drivers are much more trusting of the tech than geezers.
There is a company that offers a kit that upgrades all of this to the equivalent of Tesla’s Auto Pilot. I can certainly see kids being born right now never learning to drive—the car will do it for them. It happens. My grandfather, born in the 1870s knew how to drive a horse-drawn buggy and learned to drive a car. His son, my dad, never drove a horse in his life.
Electric cars may well be the future—but there’s going to have to be a battery breakthrough. Waiting up to an hour for a fill up won’t ever work for a lot of people. And that electricity isn’t going to generate itself.
Change out the battery, like a propane tank.