Sometimes, it’s of the utmost importance that we lift our heads to take notice of what’s happening around us.
I’m sure that most of you who have been following the news recently will have read about a recent proposal from the European Transport Safety Council, and their recommendation to equip all new vehicles from 2024 with stringent speed limiter systems. The proposed limiters can be overridden according to the proposal, but will continue to sound a warning until your speed returns to at or below the posted limit.
For me, this wasn’t the most worrying point of these proposals, but rather the mention of mandatory fitting of data loggers also to every car being manufactured from the same point in time. I’ve written briefly about this before, but cars and motorcycles are amongst the last methods of transportation which offer us ultimate freedom. You don’t need permission from anyone, you can just get in your car or on your bike and travel anywhere you want, at any time.
But, for how much longer?
I would think that there are those in power who see cars as an archaic form of transportation, and would much rather we commuted in driverless pods that are publicly shared, but those raise their own questions, too. What if your pod decides that to bring you to a convenience store instead of the one you requested? What if it decides not to bring you at all?
Perhaps there’s the option of just not buying a new car in years to come, but what happens when rules & regulations evolve to prohibit any car without these systems fitted from legally using the roads? What happens when insurance companies refuse to insure cars without Intelligent Speed Assistance and data-logging?
While I would be amongst the first to welcome any common sense measures to reduce road fatalities, I don’t think these are the solution. On the contrary, I think these promote inattentive and distracted driving, where users will just let the computers figure it out and go back to whatever they were looking at on their smartphones.
You can already see countless examples of this online with people who are incapable of using systems like Tesla’s ‘Autopilot’ in the correct manner; either incorrectly assuming that it represents Level 5 autonomy or knowingly deciding to not give their full attention to the road ahead against the manufacturer’s recommendations.
This is a very strange time to be an automotive enthusiast, and it’s so important that we all pay attention to what’s going on around us. This isn’t the time to bury your head in the sand and to think that this isn’t your battle. It very much is.
Regardless of your preferences or how you define your own automotive tastes, it’s irrelevant. We’re a relatively small community – one which some would argue is in decline – so we need to be together on matters like these.
I don’t want to be at retirement age thinking of the good old days where we could do what we wanted and when we wanted as nothing but a distant memory. I want to be in my last days having contributed something towards an exciting future for car culture for the next generation.
Because for everything we’ve seen so far on Speedhunters, there is still a lot more to come…
Paddy McGrath
Instagram: pmcgphotos
Twitter: pmcgphotos
paddy@speedhunters.com
OFFICIAL SPEEDHUNTERS SUPPLIERS
I most definitely agree even if I am American. There is so much error that can be found in these systems. yet people trust practically with their life.
have you driven around *people*? we entrust our lives to them every day already.
I don't want to comment on the value of automating our driving here; there's reams of better arguments for and against than any point I'll make. but often overlooked is that we currently entrust our lives to an extremely unreliable system - the late businessman squeezing in a shave before he sprints to his meeting, the distracted mom ferrying four kids around town, the Subaru driver who can barely see through his vape cloud, the college student who just Pullen an all-nighter to finish her calculus homework. sure, there's error to be found in a computer program, but that's getting better every day. people being distracted is not getting better; there's a limit to how good it can be, and indeed there's plenty of data out there suggesting that it's getting worse.
I'm just waiting for the breaking point, when the general public wakes up and revolts, and I hope I'm alive to see it happen. This kind of totalitarianism and nannying is increasing in seemingly every aspect of our daily lives, from the workplace to our private time. I just can't believe that the kind of people who come up with this stuff actually exist - how sheltered and dull was their upbringing for them to think this is right?! Maybe it's the fact of desk jobs; after a while you probably become so detached from the real world that these things start to make sense. Desk jobs need to be outlawed, and technology outside of advancements in healthcare needs to stop advancing. And I include car safety in that 'advancement freeze' group; if you get into an accident, it's your own damn fault for not giving your full attention to the task at hand.
NEVER gonna happen in a country with this many Costcos and personal debt.
History will back me on this.
Tell that to all the people that have had their lives irreversibly changed for the worse by a drunk driver or an idiot speeding on busy highway/roads. Maybe you're the sheltered one.
Also, please don’t confuse the following with apathy, buuuuut........
Drunk cars don’t kill people.
Cars can't get drunk. What are you, stupid?
But that's the thing. I thought about drunks before I hit post. They're not exempt from not being stupid and getting into an accident that might kill someone else. Drunkenness is a form of inattentiveness. It's been illegal forever, and besides that we're taught from a very young age the bad things drugs and alcohol can do and to 'just say no.' Some people clearly aren't bothered by either form of suppression, so what do you do in those cases? When no one would agree to being monitored 24/7 to prevent these things from happening, you can only punish the aggressor after the fact, and the victim or their families are left dealing with the result. Do you honestly think a reintroduction of prohibition would work in this age? Pot is suddenly legal in ten states and counting, and the US is not the first country to allow it. This being a car enthusiast site, I don't see anyone on here supporting fully autonomous traffic and the complete banning of manually-driven cars. Or when looking at the big picture does it happen often enough that it's worth putting a ton of extra effort into addressing at all? Can anything like that ever be completely contained without resorting to extreme measures that no one would agree to?
It's the same base problem as with overpopulation and controlling reproduction to avoid its effects (environmental, as Mike started to get into: https://today.oregonstate.edu/archives/2009/jul/family-planning-major-environmental-emphasis): educate or force. But what do you do when, like drunks that decide to drive despite it being illegal, a woman decides to find her own means of giving birth to that child she's theoretically not allowed by law to have but she was a 'good Christian' and refused an abortion? Does the government find out about the baby after the fact and kill it? If people were actually interested in adopting someone else's child, overpopulation would be less of an issue. The morality behind abortion is such a hot issue lately, too, that it would be difficult to pass laws allowing forced-abortion kinds of population control in a nation where the people are given the vote. If you're pro-choice, you're a murderer; and if you're pro-life, you support overpopulation and environmental damage, and need to keep your nose out of other peoples' personal lives. Lose-lose. We could go back and forth forever. I'm sorry I went so far away from the position of cars.
They were referring to the innocent person being injured by the drunk not the person that is drunk. While I don't agree with it being mandatory maybe some people should be using extra safety measures, because they just don't get it. I think you may fit into that category.
I will never be the same ever again after a driver on their phone hit me. I am far from sheltered, having tracked cars, and ridden motorbikes for many years. I do not support further tech to take the focus of driving. Its the distractions that are killing people. Idiots and drunks will always be there no matter what. We can never change that.
With my accident it was someones choice to break the law and dive into a side street without looking what was in the last lane. No amount of tech would have stopped that, and being in traffic it is something I couldn't see coming.
But we can change driving training. We can change to make people pay more attention. We can change the laws to force a greater level of driver skill.
Will it happen, no... The greater people want less responsibility not more, and these are the ones making the laws. They are the ones with the greatest voice. This is a real wake up call for all of us.
Self driving cars. If we're lucky in the future, attaining a drivers license will be like trying to get private pilot certificate.
NO WAAAAAY.
How many cars will these GIANT automakers be able to sell to the chosen few?
Not enough.
Not to mention, the insurance companies would BURY any driver financially due to their “voluntary” liability.
Frankly, “non-assisted drivers” would likely be rendered uninsurable.
and thats where your argument falls apart. We need technology to keep advancing so that we can fix the problems that we caused with the industrial revolution. We also need ways to deal with overpopulation that your continual advancement in healthcare would be contributing.
People come up with this stuff because they are selfish and are trying to give themselves more power over other people. Sometimes this is obvious as in a different set of rules for themselves and sometimes it isnt because it involves taking away freedoms from other people, freedoms that they were not taking advantage of so it doesn't affect them (or so they believe, but that is the danger of short term thinking)
That breaking point you are talking about wont happen until there is a serious travesty or natural disaster as people would gladly trade their freedom for safety and convenience (this is why "think of the children works so well to get things through in politics)
Every one of our big issues is controversial. I assume that putting aside solving them for later is why they've been allowed to become big issues in the first place. My "only healthcare" bit was just meant in terms of caring for the sick, injured, and elderly: people that already exist, I'm not talking about killing anyone off or letting them die because they're taking up space. Reproduction needs to be slowed, but the humane ways are obviously ignored by many in countries that are already well aware of "family planning" options, and China's strategy is proof that regulating it on a government level causes its own problems. What to do...
but trying to stop technology from advancing is just pushing our problems down the road as most technology advancements are made to solve the problems of today. That is why your just healthcare portion makes no sense as you are just making the overpopulation problem larger, Good healthcare promotes population growth as it allows people to bear children for a much longer time period.
Reproduction will never be truly slowed as that requires a global understanding that we are all equal and that we must all share the limited resources that this planet provides.
What to do? get the frig off this planet and find other planets with resources to extract and use.
I totally agree as I’m 16 and I hope that the freedom to drive doesn’t become extinct by the time I’m 18, but what can we do about it.
As with anything fun, it will remain, but it will be expensive. Hunting, horseback riding, boating... all things we HAD to do to survive in the past, are now just pricey hobbies. The same will happen with cars.
In fact, the government is so cracked up on these things that it's hard to not believe it.
The only caveat will be that EVERYTHING will become more expensive for those people that keep driving.
“The powers that be” will have to keep getting adequate revenue to maintain adequate infrastructure.
Mweh, I'm a bit on both sides of the fence: For an enthausiast, who can really drive (as in: has a track license) and has a propper mindset, this would be the end. But that same enthausiast is merely in he 1% range of the car community. If not way less then that. Set that against all the people in Europe who own a car, and that percentage dwindles to 0,0% .
For the rest of the drivers that would be a good thing. A you already said: There are tons of drivers who aren't exactly driving: Moms with kids for instance, smartphones, representatives who are late for thir next appointment. And lets not forget the people who are driving expensive cars but can hardly find reverse. if these rules will happen, those people won't change one bit.
So in a sense, the car community isn't at fault, but the regular people driving from A to B are. And they couldn't care less for the most part. So in general it will be better for the majority of people.
And lets be honest, there is always one thing bugging me about the car scene in general, and the new car scene in specific: Why is it that people always want the newest model. First they want the new model, and then the next new model. Why did you pick the previous model in the first place? I for one don't understand that? But I still like the same car I do know, and will continue to do for the rest of my life. having a newer one is financially an easy option, but why would I? Or anyone else for that matter. If your that type of person, in my eyes, its more about what other people think when they see you driving the car, compaired to what you feel when driving the car (and the opinion of the world be damned).
So honestly: I welcome those rules. I'm more into classics anyway, so couldn't care less if that happens to new cars. Most people driving cars need it. And its not like they cant drive themselves: They just have restraints to not go over the speed limit even if they want to.
And it will never be backwards compatible for classics, as that would effect market value and historic value. Cars before the implementation will just skyrocket in price. Thats all....
Al Gore proposed banning older cars and he ran for president. The more people buy into climate change fear mongering, the more likely this is to happen.
Did you even try to read the article? There is a world outside of 'Merica? In this case the article states Europe. So what has Al Gore have to do with it?
As for climate change: I support Climate change. We finally have a bit better weather the last couple of years!
He stated that it couldn't happen, I gave him an example of how it was proposed by somebody who was nearly the leader of the most powerful country on the planet. I guess reading comprehension wasn't part of your education?
"the most powerful country on the planet" ? lol we're in 2019, not 1964.
BTW, I missed that you were the originator of that comment, I should have known it wasn't worth responding to
You know that you are exactly proving my point, don't you?
"BTW, I missed that you were the originator of that comment, I should have known it wasn't worth responding to".
Is reading that difficult for you? It isn't to late to go back to school and finish it you know?
I stated that it couldn't happen in Europe that all old cars get retrofitted with hardware and software. The reason being and to educate you at leas a little bit: Europe isn't a Country. The EU is a union of participating countries where not all countries in Europe are part of. Therefore it only applies to EU members, where each and every member can implement local laws to prevent it. I for one am a member of legislation on a national scale, and review rules on a European scale. So rest assured: When I say it won't happen, it won't happen....
LMAO, you are so full of shit
If that translates to: I am right and you cant handle that: Yes, your right!
I’m not in this fray, but I used Google Translate and got a different result.
This is the inevitable march of human progression, The people in power want to take away everyone elses freedoms thus concentrating more power within their position. I think its more interesting to think of how the manufacturers are going to survive such a transition. If level 5 autonomy is achieved then ownership of vehicles will drastically drop as well as the need for multiple manufacturers (who actually cares what their taxi looks like?). Thats even before we consider the drip in revenue that police departments will surly take by that point.
The other end of the stick is that this is politicians trying to legislate something that they have no clue about. The warning noise when traveling above the posted speed limit? How is that system going to work? Computer vision to pick up the road signs? (already proven to be able to be spoofed) GPS and maps? (gps signals fall out in certain types of terrain and show me gps maps that are 100% up to date and correct)
Yet again a perfect example of politicans trying to tell science and technology how to work with out actually understanding anything about unintended consequences. Heres a good question:
If all of these safety features come into play and it reduces police department revenue to such a point where traffic police are no longer needed and moved elsewhere, then who is going to verify that you have these systems in your car and that they are actually operating properly and not being fed bogus data? After-all, they are digital systems and digital systems are only as reliable as their inputs are.
I for one welcome them trying to implement these systems because i will be trying my hardest to break them and show how flawed their thinking is.
I totally agree, i will kill anyone who tries to tell me i cant drive my car and slam it as low as i want to.
Stay away from California, buddy.
lol have you been to California? every third car here has wheels with ten degrees of camber and throws sparks cruising down the freeway
Meh I dont even care. I am going to selfishly enjoy the fact that I was alive and actively racing during the early/mid 90s and got to enjoy my personal favorite hay day of the auto scene and not care about the stupid kids of the future. Looks like they missed it and were born in the wrong era. Oh well. I apologize for those who disagree but I really dont care, this is my honest opinion.
Can't fight progress. I'll keep enjoying cars until I can't afford them, then I'll switch to wood working or knitting or something less dangerous (saws and needles?!) I can't afford to have a p-38 Lightning anyway which is what I really want.
You have so many first-world problems it makes me sick!
I read the title and came straight to the comments, no.
Safety first. How about Full roll cages, 5 point Harnesses, Fuel cells,etc. We know how to fix it. So who is volunteering to get on the safety comity? OH mandatory Autocross school for all new drivers and it should be school team sport. Hey which is safer Skiing or Autocross?
I've been saying track days should be a requirement for a driver's license. And if the owner's car can survive 3 laps without braking that's also the safety inspection.
I wish this was an april fools joke but unfortunatelly not
People seem to forget big brands like BMW and Porsche were involved in the nazi effort during the war , they made it through and thrive today having never looked back or ever being brought to their responsability. On top of that you have groups like Audi, VW, again Porsche, that have been involved in the dieselgate scandal and , again, never fully made responsible for this, VW even had better sales than before.
And we praise these brands and cars like fools. I love cars, no doubt, but i know that car brands dont love us back in the same way, you are nothing more than a figure and a possible client to get money from. If they have been involved in death and deliberate poisoning of people why would they even care about control laws like the ones you state? that would be peanuts for them. i believe they even promote these "advances", the more info they can get out of the general public the better they can fit their machine to make money out of you. And we all dance their dance. Remember, for example, Volvo Cars which is owned by chinese capital and now wants to fit surveillance systems in their cars., they kill 2 rabbits with 1 stone.
University-level academia and the auto industry are the new MAFIAS.
There’s a lot of people making money on such maleficence.
The question here is: Are you paying atention?
This is the kind of crap that keeps me up at night. No more freedom, everything overregulated by systems, algorithms, statistics ... only to find that politicians gave in to short-terms gains and lobbyist pressure, and all the magic systems are made by humans so will inevitably fail.
Even the climate topic is being abused; sure, cars are more polluting than home-grown organic cotton socks or whatever...but at the same time, European legislation is pushing us towards being new cars (instead reusing/modifying existing cars). We are expected to plug into the grid, but I'd prefer to change my engine to hydrogen...several universities have already implemented this on petrol and diesel engines.
1984 is happening, but instead of one big brother, we are getting a crapton of little sisters.
Perhaps it should go without saying, but elections have consequences.
Can't have control without control - this is what you get voting for socialism
He’s right, you know. Whoever voted that down is just in denial.
I'm paying attention...You lead the article with a sweet GC Subaru photograph coupled with an opening statement that mentions "we lift our heads." It's the little things that give me joy.
EUROPE IS THE PROBLEM.
The very word DRACONIAN is based on Draco...a European ruler. The oppression of French Monarchy, the British Empire, Stalin, Hitler...ALL EUROPEAN.
In the auto industry, the Americans have made it more difficult to manufacture cars. However, MOST of the legislation is aimed at improving safety. Neither them or Asian manufacturers are overly concerned about wiping cars and sovereignty (as we know them) off the earth. At the end of the day, there’s too much money to be made!
Fix European leadership focused on maintaining the “ruler & subjects” hierarchy and you fix the problem.
Period.
Trevor, you stepped on a landmine while holding a grenade with the pin pulled in front of an Abrams tank aiming for your head!!!
Goodluck!!
Fortunately, today technology enables us to get together and coordinate ourselves easily. This, we enthusiasts should use to make our voice heard in Brussels and in all 20something countries part of the EU
You seem to forget all that social networking only aids complacency and conformist behaviors. How may people are going to “LIKE” rocking the boat or biting the hand that feeds??? For CARS??? Not many.
Face it, everyone would rather lick the toad.
They're gonna go out of their way to stop you from noticing what's going on. The classic way of doing this is by defaming anyone who puts 2 and 2 together as a "Conspiracy Theorist".
Wake up, are you kidding, look at what they elected in NY, AOC. And almost every democratic presidential candidate is a confirmed socialist which is only a step away from communist.
They know better than you, your just sheep. How about the green deal, your correct they don't want cars, NYC just enacted congestion pricing, $12 to drive into Manhattan. Just another tax, when is it enough. The money goes to the MTA for the subways while the roads here are terrible.
In the 70s, during the fuel crisis, there were cars that would sound an annoying BEEEEEEP whenever a car went over 55 mph. Manufacturers claimed it was for fuel economy. What happened to those cars? People stopped buying them. They instead bought the cars that didn't have speed limit warnings. The car companies suffered. Eventually, this watchdog system was removed, replaced with a simple circle on the speedometer to show where the speed limit was. These problems will work themselves out, eventually. Want to punish a car company? Stop buying their cars. Want to punish a politician who votes for draconian speed laws? Don't vote for him.
Word.
"I strip away the old debris
That hides a shining car
A brilliant red Barchetta
From a better vanished time
I fire up the willing engine
Responding with a roar
Tires spitting gravel
I commit my weekly crime"
I'm pretty sure this would make at least some people drive much less safely. If they put a speed limiter on the pedal that adapted to the posted speed limit I suspect a lot of people would just keep their foot planted and drive the speed limit all day long, instead of assessing driving conditions and adjusting speed accordingly. With distracted driving getting worse and worse I don't see how allowing drivers to further disengage from driving is going to help that.
Well, we can't enjoy the freedom that we have as car enthusiasts. The government treats cars as a menace.
That’s because auto-enthusiasts don’t have an NRA.
SEMA and the UAW have clout, but not like that.
One of the best, most thought provoking articles I’ve read here.
My understanding is even current cars have data logging that dealers and in the case of an accident insurance companies can access.
Paddy, us Australian's have recently tested some of the automated cars and the results were quite funny. I think they are quite a way off bringing these into production - at least in Australia.... Maybe we might become the real life Mad Max country
For the test results google "Aussie trial finds Victorian freeways turn automated car into speed freaks"
Meh, don’t buy into the hype from the US.
To date there has been no legislation determining:
-Autonomous car accident liability
-Even semi-autonomous user regulation (IE: sleepy Tesla drivers)
-Standardization or regulation of vehicle networking and control
The first one is a biggie. If governments and insurers hold automakers liable for autonomous accidents...the systems had better be PERFECT.
When was the last time any newly-adopted technology from ANY automaker worked perfectly?
Implementing laws that manage such issues may defeat or radically alter what we’d consider “autonomous” cars. Fully autonomous won’t be adopted en masse for a while.
Just because technology is capable of doing something doesn’t mean that morally / ethically / culturally it is the right thing to do...
I agree this is nanny state removing independent thought and self-control. I don’t think autonomous vehicles will stop drink drivers - if anything they’ll probably think they’re safer to drive...!!
The question is how do you push back against these kind of regulations - who needs to lobby who...
It is a great example of why the EU is a mess - these people are not elected - they just want to play god in creating a dysfunctional utopia or essentially a dystopia!!
“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society."...Edward Bernays
Now they use technology as a way to fulfill their desire to control the "dumb" population. I know of high tech companies that are going to provide insurance companies with daily recorded driving habits of individuals (recorded by the cars they drive) in order to asses insurance rates.. Insurance companies=Banks= government mandating these laws..creating nanny states.. Get out there and vote people!!!
HA, I like this guy!
Bernays...where to begin?
Well, certainly if one hasn’t seen “The Century of the Self” by Adam Curtis...it’s worth a watch.
Long, but worth every second. If you ever want a thorough and merciless critique of American culture...ya gotta go British.
Remember during an auto class, one of the TA was talking about how obdIII will have the ability to send data it collects from the car. Makes it like I'm not owning it at all. That is scary stuff...
Yes, but this is a much deeper rooted problem. The whole society, our political culture represents the opposite end of the possible solution. Only a very small minority of people understand, that the so much desired freedom requires to take responsibility. Politicians proved countless time through history that they will take anything but responsibility. Our fellow Homo Sapiens also prove it day by day. We try to create systems to take away our responsibility instead of encourage taking it our own. As our species describe itself (homo sapiens ) we are thinking infinitely, but we are slower than moving continents in learning. As Confucius said: Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous. This makes human kind dangerous to itself and everything else get in contact with it.
So if you want to stand up for something, stand up for this. Take responsibility in your family, in your neighbourhood, in your country. Be the change you want to see, then you will see change.
Quoting Confucius???
Dog, dats gangsta!
I think we as automotive enthusiasts are certainly a dying breed. Google Trends can verify it. Just search a common automotive enthusiast term and see how it's use has declined over the years. I suppose that our hobby is going to go the same way as the horse, from a mode of transportation everyone used to an interest that only equestrian enthusiasts care about. I don't think it'll truly die out in our lifetimes.
I had a Dream of an overlord F40ish transformer bot taking its pet human out for a drive. Stopped at an intersection a Grey Mercedes's bot looks over and snarls “we will be getting rid of those useless humans next week they cant even think for themselves”. There is a slim hope of the Honda Civic Bot Rebels saving us but its kind of a doomed long shot. What is consciousness anyway?
I think many/all of the comments see a much larger issue than Car regulations. For me the car is an extension of myself and a moving canvas for creativity and sharing and busted knuckles. Those are the real heart of “An Economy” And measure of success. We should truly put our minds to work on what our future is to be and embrace and direct change.
I agree, if there is a freedom of speech why do they keep targeting cars? Which all we do is give more money to countries thru tax. We don't literally hurt anyone.
The cancer that is European Union folks.
We're going to go the way of the horse - from mainstay of transportation to a hobby or rural working tool. We'll trailer our babied object of affection to the race or show, and the rest of civilization just won't get it. But we'll persist and carve out our own little cultural niche.
I keep wondering if we will go out at all? or work on cars? We spend more time in the digital world and for kids its really bad they seem to be having a harder time working out problems for themselves, and if they care about anything its usually digital social stuff or games. The Digital world is just not a replacement for the real world its not as complex and thats not good for kids development.
And AI as simple as it is now could replace us all. CAD has automated design, they call the engineer the curator, there are no safe jobs AI even paints.
I remember a 124 Spyder I had as a kid, I learned so much, especially patience (well sort of). OH good old points and coil ignition. I found I could use a light bulb across the points the find the trigger spot and set my distributor ( I didnt have timing light). And coils nothing like a good shock to get the idea.
I think Machines should be tools we use, I know the industrial revolution changed the world but Archimedes was ancient and did some wild stuff so machines were around. We are about to create a type of being that can in the worst case end us with out even a serious debate it seems.
I see this set of regulations not about safety but clearing the way for AI. I think cars are a main drive because they can claim better safety less traffic etc. I bet the next step would be even more fees and congestion pricing etc, and once they AI cars its easy to do it everywhere.
Amen. We all need to realise that this is a problem that will not go away, merely change name and or means of execution. There was a plan years ago in the UK to ban Old/ classic' cars from the roads. No thought of exactly was a classic and what was a mess, and who had the right to classify each car in any case.
Actually that's the deal in China, modification is still a grey zone, we don't have any law or rule to follow.The same time our authority doesn't let us keep any car forever due to exhaust law, and recent years seems like they are trying to limit the importation of sport car with big engine.
I personally couldn't care less about new self-driving cars. Wait until someone who crashed with one of these cars (and it will happen, computers and I.A. are farrrrr from being 100% bulletproof, see what's happening to Boeing planes autopilot systems lately...) Anyways, wait until someone that crashed while inside a self-driving car, killed someone either on another car or on the sideways. And wait until this person goes to justice and a car maker is found responsible and has to pay for it, since after all it was the car they made that was in control. That will simply eradicate self-driving cars, as both car makers and their insurrance companies would go bankerupt after 6 months if trials like this happen all over the world and they are found responsible of every accident and deathes on the road. I am just waiting for this to start happening, and you can bet car makers will go full reverse to "manual" cars were only the asshole that's driving it will pay for damages.
Same with electric cars anyways, people tend to think electricity comes out of their plug on the wall for free and without consequences. Don't tell me we'll be able to produce enough electricity to replace every single power petrol/oil produces all over the world. This is pure utopy. We are barely able to produce enough, and the growth of population on Earth will just make it worse. Also I am not particularly interested in seeing a nuclear power plant every 200 meters.