Open Road

Monday Jun 1st 2009

Cars don’t fly

Furthermore they are still one of the least safe forms of travel. They are complex to learn to use. They run off black gunk destroying the planet. They do not drive themselves home when you have had a drink. They are unusable in crowded city centres and they are unaffordable for three-quarters of the world’s population. And for some reason people wonder why this industry is going out of business.

Cars have been subject to only the most limited or superficial technological change in the last half century. The main improvements have been incremental gains in safety and fuel efficiency. The massive disadvantages of the product have simply been ignored in the vain hope that people would still have the same high-octane aspirations they did in the 50s. And to an extent they do: the over-emphasised consonants of Top Gear are an illustration of the appeal of big, brash, fast motoring.

But in economic terms this is a delusion, a throw-back to a bygone age, no more relevant to the future of mass travel than Cowes week. If the motor industry wants to succeed it needs to give us practical cars – and this means cheap and simple or smart and ultra-convenient. Sinking into a world of subsidy cars will surely fall behind other technology. I will therefore continue to put off learning to drive. I have great confidence that my laptop will double as a teleport or hoverboard long before I need to.