As sad as it may be to admit it, the glory days of driving may be far behind us. Every year brings ever more technological developments that have as their ultimate end the elimination of human-driven cars and the adoption of self-driving automobiles whose movements will be far easier to be controlled.
Part of the recently passed $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill included a provision that all new cars must be outfitted with technology to prevent drunk driving. How exactly that would be done is unclear, but the Secretary of Transportation has three years to adopt a rule mandating the implementation and adoption of such technology. Experts expect the new technology to appear in cars in 2026.
This kind of nanny state busibodiness follows on the heels of things such as lane-keeping technology, automatic braking, and other technologies that frustrate good drivers, empower bad drivers, and make self-driving cars an eventual inevitability. So if you want to keep driving your car, you may not have many years left.
It’s unlikely that future administrations will do anything to counteract these new regulations, either. Every single piece of nanny state intrusion into the automotive industry becomes permanent, and every single piece of mandated technology continues to drive up the cost of new cars, causing them to become more and more expensive.
This is all part of a planned process, an attempt to make car ownership so expensive that only the rich can afford it, so that the unwashed masses will be forced into car sharing or public transportation. Privately owned and operated vehicles give people independence and freedom of movement that governments can’t stand. And that’s why cars will always be in the government’s crosshairs.
That isn’t to say we shouldn’t keep fighting. The fight will never be over, as governments will always try to impinge upon our freedom of movement. And for all we know the backlash against electric vehicles and self-driving cars will be so great that governments will have to back down, at least temporarily. But in order to have at least a chance of that, we’re going to have to fight against further impositions on our freedoms.