The roads will be so congested all the cars could be wired together with one massive battery pack towed behind them.
That's called a train Edited... Actually, my vision of the future involves lots of self drive cars, virtually forming roadtrains and each pod car peeling off to their destination when required. No need to own one, just call up your pod, it arrives, drops you off wherever and then goes off for the next passenger. No need for separate roads and rail, no stations or signals.
All I want is a brand new build version of my now ageing 04 plate Peugeot 307SW. Its a smoky old Diesel , but any city that doesnt want my car doesnt get my custom. I know it will cost me thousands to keep it on the road, but I can probably keep it going until I have to stop driving. And it will still work out cheaper than a long line of leased EVs. At least in Cologne, the car park for old stuff they wont let into the city was a big cheap multistorey next to a busy tram line to the city centre, joined up thinking.
The older motors were easy to work on and simple to understand ...but rotted that was the down side . Now they are very good bodywork wise and out live the running gear . A shame one couldn't use the shell and fit a basic system similar to old Ford Escorts ..Avengers and the like ...but then its all back to cost again .
Honda Civic Type R FL5 Its the pinnacle of petrol cars as far as i'm concerned. Probably the best engineered engine ever made in terms of performance and reliability. Likely the best ever front wheel drive car in terms of driver involvement/ fun. Also has 4 seats and a boot so its properly usable unlike a supercar, and its a manual. The "old" type r was a 30 something grand car - this one is nearer to 50 and they are selling at a premium over list because they are so good, and also the cache of being the very last petrol type r. Who'd have thought it - fifty grand for a honda civic lol.
That’s exactly how I think it’ll end up as well. Sort of like hailing a taxi that’ll come to your door but be driverless. Could also be run like scalextricks too , then you pay a boggo standard rate to hail one, pay a premium if you want one immediately. The rates are pretty much set by the operator and governing bodies but you could pay a larger premium if you needed to be there super fast, or didn’t want to share etc etc. Change to a larger one at a station for intercity travel. Just need to sort this mindless vandalism and graffiti issue first. Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,,,because cash will be a thing of the past
i think there will be move a whole load of innovative ways to be mobile, but we already have car share schemes which have limited appeal tbh, and lots of folks already don't really own their cars, just pay a monthly lease. i think there may be more like that in the future just paying a monthly fee for a vehicle, but for the majority who don't buy into the "new-car-every-3-yrs" or are trying to keep up with the jones's next door then car ownership will still be a thing. In fact, i think with the demise of new ICE cars then i think more and more folks will just hold on to the car they have until it dies. why? don't want to be forced to switch, don't have the cash, don't have off street parking for charging or just reluctance to change/want to stick with what they know. ^ this affect may in fact be the best outcome from an environmental perspective - if we all just kept the cars we already have then that's potentially a massive c02 reduction as an aside, i know loads of folks who 10 years ago would have a company car (new car every 3 yrs) where now i hardly know of any as the tax burden is too great. yes some of those have just gone out and leased something similar but i'd say the majority from my experience just bought themselves something nice, used, purchased outright and are keeping it longer.
Apparently the all powerful corporations of the world are determined to create a society where individuals own nothing but rely on the corporations to provide everything through rent/lease/subscribe/pay as you go. Tidy.
But the idea is you own nothing but still need these things which will be taken away if you stop paying the monthly. No retiring to a simple life to enjoy the fruits of your labour.
i'd like to think that by the time i retire i won't need to pay for *anything* monthly (well, other than council tax. oh, and phone. electicity too i guess. gas?! ffs.. !) . Ok by the time i retire i hope i won't need to pay for my mortgage and my car monthly. other than the tax every 6 months. and the insurance too i guess.
It's the basis of my whole life. So what happens to this plan when for example cars are actually not possible to buy but only available to rent? A lot of software has already gone this way and impossible to buy outright. Where it is, operating systems are made more and more to make old software that did the same basic job obsolete. Apple are masters of this game. They even throttle old phones to make them appear obsolete. My AutoCad that I paid 3.5k for - and that was a bargain, no longer works.
Some cad told me there are people out there paying a monthly subscription for a door bell that takes a photo of the postman every day. Fools........
The more people jump at subscriptions the more we'll see. I can understand as a business it's good to have regular predictable income but it makes them lazy. The game then changes from to providing as little as they can get away with - product development and fault fixing are inevitably seen as negatively effecting that predictable bottom line.
