We’ve spent the better part of the 20th century building a robust culture around cars. Though as autonomous vehicles start to take over, parts of that world might no longer be relevant. Is this a bad thing? No one’s really sure yet. But in a few years, our cars will just start to feel like the bus, rather than a part of our identities. For the purposes of brevity let’s just say that: AV — Autonomous Vehicles

1. We Will No Longer Teach Our Kids How To Drive

License to Drive — The two Corey’s at their finest

Driver’s Ed teachers are in a class of their own. I’m sure a few of you have a story or two about your experience. Not to mention clocking those learner’s permit hours with your parents, which in my case, was a New York Jewish mother as a co-pilot in our Navy Blue Dodge Caravan. Though at the time it was a gauntlet of angst and indecisiveness, they are memories I now look back fondly on.

McLovin can haz ID?

Flash forward to when AV’s hit the market, and it’s plausible that the cars themselves will teach kids how to drive (I smell an auto app!) Though by then, who knows what percentage of young people will actually still be getting their driver’s licenses (spoiler, its plummeted over the past 10 years).

Some might not care, but to me, getting that 3" plastic card so perfectly embodied a certain freedom; the shift away from my childhood and into the first glimpses of adulthood. I still have my first license in a shoebox, and I’m sure many of you do too.

2. The DMV

Umm yeah … there’s no way the DMV will stick around. I mean possibly a central office per city and definitely online (A VR DMV experience is something NO ONE should ever make), but all in all, one small victory for technology!

3. Cruising

Cruising down main street was THE Saturday night activity in small towns in a post WWII America. Wikipedia provides this summary:

Cruising is a social activity that primarily consists of driving a car. Cruising can be an expression of the freedom of possessing a driver’s license. Cruising is distinguished from regular driving by the social and recreational nature of the activity, which is characterized by an impulsively random, often aimless course.

While some we’re just in it to socialize, Cruising and the larger hot-rod movement was often about taking something standard, tinkering with it, and making it your own. You’d build up an engine, add after-market parts, and then take it out on the town. It was about expression, and the cars were extensions of our identity. And if you got a date out of it, solid.

Cruising is still a part of our lives today with Lowrider culture. The reason they pick older models (on top of just looking cooler) is because they aren’t computers on wheels (aka drive by wire). People can take an old Impala and actually tinker with it, and do what they want to make it their own. It’s hard enough to imagine a Prius ever having serious Bounce — and an AV lowrider just sounds wrong.

4. Drunk Driving

Have you ever been on the short end of the stick when picking designated drivers? In the future that stick will be given to your AV every. single. time. Just imagine heading out for the night to a party and not have to worry about limiting your intake of Negroni’s.

In 2014 alone, there were nearly 10,000 alcohol related traffic deaths, which accounted for nearly 1/3 of all traffic related deaths in the U.S. But AV’s have the potential to move that number to zero, which is incredible.

Though this leads to a whole new set of questions, like is it ok to drink and be driven? If you can drink champagne in the back of a limo, why can’t you drink it in Geo Metro (as long as the Geo Metro is driving itself).

5. Ghost Ride the Whip — lost but not forgotten

Cars might soon be too smart to allow even Lil Dickey t0 you know, just be him.

6. Criminal Get Away Cars

Even though people on Facebook often think otherwise, crime rates are actually going down. In the most recent FBI Uniform Crime Report, there was a 20% decrease in crime compared to 10 years ago. The abundance of street cameras, geolocation on phones, and crazy-future surveillance tech like Eye in the Sky, are no doubt contributing to this.

Still there are gonna be thieves who need to flee a scene. But once their cars are part of a connected network, all a cop will most likely have to do is enter the license plate number, and the car will slowly come to a stop. Hot Tip to masked robbers — start making friends with hackers, pronto.

7. Drag Racing / Speeding

Sorry Fast and Furious Fans, but this seems doubtful. I mean, you might be able to burn out off the line, but once you get to the speed limit, of which your computer is keenly aware and constantly checking, the race is pretty much over.

And even if you’ve switched off AV mode, with all the advanced tech and sensors that will baked into cars – trying to drift or do donuts, will most likely trigger a safety prevention system, that will quickly put the kibosh on any Paul Walker tribute move.

RIP

Oh and AV’s should write one big apology letter to all Cops, who will no longer be able to hit their monthly quotas of speeding tickets. Sorry Cops.

8. Breaking Curfew

Imagine you’re out with your friends (or dare I say, a girl) way past your curfew. Your parents are up, and instead of quietly steaming at the kitchen table until you come home, what if they could just take control of your car, forcing it to drive you directly home. Behold The Drive of Shame.

9. Pow Pow, Power Wheels

I was really more of a Micro Machines kind of kid than Hot Wheels. And without giving it a thought, I’d basically befriend anyone if they had a Power Wheels I could take out for a spin. But I would spend hours and hours designing and building tracks, and then race my favorite cars back and forth on them. And I’m pretty sure a big reason I was so into car toys was because I knew at some point in my future, I’d be able to play with the real thing. Looking back on it, I never built out a scene where I was commuting home from Santa Monica on the 10 Freeway at 6pm on a Friday. But when was fantasy ever practical.

Once we stop being able to drive the real thing, do you think kids are going to stay as engaged with car toys? My money’s on no. The exception I imagine will be racing videos games (all probably VR by then). Probably for kids who grew up with the knowledge of being able to drive, but just missed the boat. And more likely for people like me, who will want strap in and for a moment and be back in the good ‘ole days.

But it’s plausible, that in the not too distant future, you’ll get your kid a racing game for Christmas, and he’ll just look at you and say, “But why would I want to play a game where I was doing one of those boring robot jobs? That doesn’t seem fun at all.”

10. Moving across the country

To all those people who pack up their Subaru on the East Coast and head out west for that great new job or just in search of something new — what if you no longer had to actually drive your car across the country? What if you could just hop on a plane and have your car do it for you, on it’s own? Who knows what the legality of having your car drive while you’re not in it will be, but couldn’t you see this eventually become the case? It has some potential uses, and would definitely be something the car rental industry could benefit from.

Of course, this means that you are no longer subjected to all the Arby’s, World’s Largest Excursions, and sub-par motels along the way. The idea of a cross-country trip as a rite of passage, will fall into annals of history, yet one more thing we no longer have to sit through the process of. Because what we’re all coming to realize is, the destination, is the destination.