Here's what makes automobiles the devil incarnate

American Thinker ^ | 26 Aug, 2021 | Mark C. Ross

[MtnClimber]

It's not their exhaust or the fuel they burn; it's their steering wheels. Drivers get to go wherever they want to go, even if it's not to a "good" place. Trains run on rails and don't need steering wheels. They go where the all-wise planners know you ought to be.

Thus is explained the irrational preference for passenger rail transport that is continually expressed by the American left. Amtrak is a dud. It's trapped in the past — before automobiles opened up the vast American continent. Rail is great for shipping freight, but not people, who need to be fed, take naps, and go to the bathroom. Lumber, sugar beets, soybeans and automobiles are much easier to handle. Amtrak, however, has the right-of-way on the tracks, forcing freight trains to pull into "holes" to get out of the way, thus delaying the completion of their tasks and increasing the cost.

Meanwhile, the reductio ad absurdum of the passenger rail pipe dream is California's HSR (high-speed rail). After years of work and billions of dollars spent, some day in the future, folks wanting to get from Bakersfield to Modesto in a hurry will probably still have to drive. Even some incompetent and corrupt politicians are starting to get cold feet:

Years ago, the Legislature empaneled a group of "experts" to forecast the bottom-line reality of the project. Their finding, back then, was that the operating cost of sending a passenger from the Bay Area to metro Los Angeles via HSR was greater than the retail price of an airline ticket. Since then, HSR has accumulated still more cost overruns.

Yes, passenger rail is still viable in areas of high population density — where riders and destinations are plentiful. But much of America is hinterland, rich in empty vastness.

[ro_dreaming]

would be CONTROL of movement.

Which is in violation of the 1st amendment of the Constitution.

It also guarantees the right of citizens to assemble peaceably and to petition their government.

Also a violation of the 4th amendment

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated

[who_would_fardels_bear]

Cars are also mobile motel rooms and helped to kickstart the sexual revolution. They also allow people to get out of the place of their birth and avoid their responsibilities to their families and communities.

The car is a two-edged sword. Yes it helped give us independence and freedom, but freedom to do both good and bad.

It's great for left-leaning libertarians, but a mixed bag for conservatives. As waves of immigrants with different values than us wash up upon our shores, the choices they make with their freedom and independence will ultimately lead to less freedom and independence.

At some point in the future, if and when autonomous cars become a thing, regular cars will be banned from the main arteries for safety's sake and cars will just become an extension of the mass transit system. Speak your destination into the mic and the system will get you to your destination... if your social credit score is sufficient.

[rlmorel]

Nearly everything has a duality to it...I often use the example of a claw hammer, which may be used to build a beautiful house, or may be used to smash in the head of another human being.

I think a great deal about autonomous cars. I have always loved the concept, and it could be done today by networking cars together, etc. But they could never have autonomous cars on the same road with people-driven cars.

Never.

Plus, as I have seen over the years, giving humans the ability to track others and by extension control their movements, is an abhorrent idea because abuse and restrictions of liberty are inevitable.

Inevitable. Autonomous cars will be fine if I am 89 and can no longer drive on my own, or if I am 75 (or 25) and intoxicated, but...I doubt that, while those positive things will be the selling points, that they will be the reasons the Leftists want things like autonomous vehicles.

They want them for one reason, and one reason only: Control over others.

Which is why the shine for autonomous vehicles is off for me.