How will we relate to cars we won't own or drive?

As Maslow’s pyramid gets updated with toilet paper as the basic necessity for mankind to

survive, Covid19 is making some of us reminisce about a time when we could get in our cars

or hop on our bikes and hit the open road. This led to an insightful conversation with a

classmate about how autonomous, connected, leased and shared vehicles are set to change

the landscape of personalized transportation in the near future. It dawned on me that by

the time my car-crazy three-year-old starts to appreciate Metallica’s musical genius, the

lyrics to ‘Fuel’ won’t make much sense if combustion engines aren’t around. Which makes

me wonder how his generation will relate to cars they will neither own nor drive? If you

think about it, how we relate to cars today is different from when baby boomers were the

primary buyers. Cars back then had no airbags, satnav, park assist and features we consider

pretty basic by current yardsticks. Which makes it ironic that our parents and grandparents

had a stronger emotional bond to their basic, unreliable cars.

Pessimists may attribute breakdowns and repairs as the creator of this bond. That it

stemmed from necessity, not choice. Did dad love his fiat 1100 because of how unreliable it

was? I’d like to believe it was the freedom his car offered at a time when we couldn’t

connect to the world from the comfort of our couches. When owning a car was a privilege

and driving was an art that required skills honed over years behind the wheel. Driver

assistance systems in cars today make experts out of novices.

Looking ahead, the human-car equation is set to change as the latter evolves faster than the

former. And we will probably relate to our autonomous, zero-emission rides as a gadget on

four wheels. Don't get me wrong, I am optimistic about the prospect of a mundane

commute becoming a session of entertainment, relaxation or work. A future where we will,

quite literally, be driven. But at the cost of the kinship with our rides being a casualty of

evolution. Sad but true, in Metallica parlance. Or is it?

What’s your take on the evolution of the human-car relationship and where do you think it

is headed?