The end of student drivers


I saw a car today that said "Student Driver" on it, and it's made me want to time-travel a bit. Whether it's the distant future, or not so far away, student drivers as we know them, will end. Cars will become automated, the same way that elevators did, and so many other things that we take for granted that don't require a human being to operate them.

Speaking for myself, I was proud of the things that I started learning at age 16 that allowed me to operate an automobile. By the time that I was a student driver cars had gotten much easier to operate than in my grandpappy's time, with automatic transmissions, power steering, that kind of thing. Still, it took some skill to learn how to turn the steering wheel, apply the brakes, etc. so that you didn't bump (or crash!) into things. I prided myself on learning to come to such a smooth stop while driving my parents' Torino station wagon that it felt as soft as drifting into a cloud. Of course, when I first tried to use the brake I nearly tossed everyone into the dashboard! Then I moved on, lurching every few feet.

Nowadays I know a lot of old-timers who bemoan the lack of knowledge that young people have about automobiles, and as we time-travel into the future it will become worse and worse. I grew up with automatic elevators, which I was happy to travel in, but really never knew the make and model. Otis, I guess? And whether the elevator was a "double-crank-camshaft" model or not (I'm making that up!), I had no idea, and really didn't care. I pushed a button and it took me somewhere - the floor I wanted to get to.

Of course there are always safety concerns. Anything that's controlled automatically, not by a human, can be a very dangerous thing. I'm inclined to think that wise people avoided automatic elevators until they had worked all the bugs out, either taking the stairs, or always making sure that there was a trusted elevator operator in there.

And even though student drivers will be gone from the city streets, there will still be people who will need to learn how to operate things like trucks, with professionals who will be licensed the way that truck drivers and airplane pilots are.

As I write this, in March of 2024, it's now been over two years since I first rode in a self-driving car, and it was an interesting idea, but actually a "non-event", which I can compare to riding in an elevator without an operator. It got me where I was going, and that was it. My girlfriend rode along with me, and she just sat there looking at her phone, not very thrilling.

So the future will be less interesting, but I like looking at it. Thank you for time-traveling with me!

Thank you for the encouragement! If you want to see daily pics of my adventures on my recumbent trike in suburban Phoenix (just for fun, of course!) you can follow me on buymeacoffee.com/bradhall, and you can buy me a coffee if you'd like to!

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