... Even if my financial situation is a bit far from tying up with that of my colleague Bach, you probably already know I'm not actually poor either. And that's just to be modest. Yet, I don't like helicopters and I only use planes if I really have to. I'm a fan (age is irrelevant by the way) of real cars. The cars I like are usually using an awesome engine as a means of propulsion, one whose name can be crammed in only two characters: V8.
Two magic characters which can give you peace and quiet when you're behind the wheel and which can make you see a more beautiful world along the serpents curling around the road. The tarmac is the same pretty much wherever you live, while a V8 is perfect anywhere on the planet. So, this means we can already have a few things in common. You, the readers, and me, the one sweating in front of the laptop right now in order to insure... well, not his pay but his peace of mind.
You see, our future, the ones who like real cars, is becoming darker and darker. I'm actually quite sad about it. Never mind the stupid economy crisis - assassinating our favorite car brands one by one - never mind the pig flu – threatening us with extinction – just leave every thing that can keep us away from our pleasure and... what do we have left?
We're left with some handicapped governments that aren't either capable or willing to care about our pleasure, with restrictions rising up more frequent than the sun over great metropolises and with a promise which tends to become a reality.
The cities will be packed with "intelligent" vehicles which brake by themselves and travel bumper to bumper but in a very "intelligent" way. They will also drive on their own, from point A to point B, without any significant events, without exceeding the speed limits, without transmitting anything to their drivers.
How did we get here? How did we get to become happy about any French piece of crap which manages to compress four people into three meters of metal, into two meters... soon just in a single meter since it's much more economical this way.
The Prius is already a symbol of "modern people". Let's be serious, it's stupid, expensive and cluttered like the minds of the Japanese who created it in a moment of transcendental meditation... Don't you think we're exaggerating a bit? Don't you think we're actually lying to ourselves?
Wouldn't it be easier for those who need a simple and safe means of transportation from point A to point B to have a public transportation system as precise as a Swiss watch? Wouldn't it be easier if only the people who actually liked to drive should be allowed on the road?
Why do thousands of people have to stay put in traffic, driving with up to 8 km/h (5 mph) when they could all use a perfect public transportation system. One put together by the ones who are unfortunately heading our governments.
Look around you! Aren't you a lost sheep in traffic? Aren't you losing hours upon hours in a single day, dragging with your puny-engined econobox? Why are you buzzing everyone with your tin can, your cheap and soulless subcompact... Why don't you admit the fact that you don't have anything in common with the subject of cars and let others do this?
Others who might do it with dignity, with pleasure and without tripping over you or your friends, you know, the ones who don't even know how the dashboard lighter works, never mind the engine or other technical parts. Billions of dollars thrown away on studies, on crap like "intelligent cars" that want to eliminate the human factor out of the equation, to eliminate the stupidity of passing a driving license exam faster than you can get a mosquito-hunting permit.
Wouldn't it be more productive if all this money went towards building new and modern subway lines? Building fast and efficient trains which stop in every station and at every three minutes, no stop. OK, those can be "intelligent" and driverless...
I don't get what's with all this hysteria of eliminating the drivers, the people who really want to enjoy that goddamn car, on which they probably paid infinitely more than they're worth. I don't get why every person HAS to drive a car, when at least three quarters of them are driving pieces of junk that only take them a few lousy miles from home to the office and back.
We should all look in the mirror and the ones who can finally admit they have absolutely no connection to actually driving a car should make a total sacrilege. They should walk or use the fast and decent public transportation system. They should stop wriggling all over the road, confused, scared and uptight behind the wheel.
If this doesn't happen than we will all have to become like them. We live in a system that wants you stupid, obedient, without thinking or having any feelings, without having any amount pleasure outside the legal holidays – except when we're being called in to save the economy by buying something...
And I keep thinking that, if we're doing this after all – paying taxes upon taxes for this goddamn oil – why not get something in return as well? Straight, wide and long roads, without restrictions where they really shouldn't be, without stupid cops that hunt for your license in the middle of nowhere and especially without the stupid robots who shouldn't even be on a planet overrun by... people.
I hate robotized cars, sheep-behaving drivers, the dreaded direction towards the whole automotive industry – with all its loves and hates – is heading to. Who knows, maybe there's something that can be done about it. Maybe we can still set things right? Can we?
PS: probably while writing this text, 100,000 people's lives perished in a car accident. In 99% of the cases, the police will say that "speed" killed them, or carelessness, fatigue, etc. Not the system, not the fact that they were pushed from behind, forced to drive a car without having even a general clue about it. Cars, believe me or not... also have feelings and moods too. Sometimes I feel they're cleverer than most of the guys owning them... And I'm not talking about modern, robotized ones either.
Two magic characters which can give you peace and quiet when you're behind the wheel and which can make you see a more beautiful world along the serpents curling around the road. The tarmac is the same pretty much wherever you live, while a V8 is perfect anywhere on the planet. So, this means we can already have a few things in common. You, the readers, and me, the one sweating in front of the laptop right now in order to insure... well, not his pay but his peace of mind.
You see, our future, the ones who like real cars, is becoming darker and darker. I'm actually quite sad about it. Never mind the stupid economy crisis - assassinating our favorite car brands one by one - never mind the pig flu – threatening us with extinction – just leave every thing that can keep us away from our pleasure and... what do we have left?
We're left with some handicapped governments that aren't either capable or willing to care about our pleasure, with restrictions rising up more frequent than the sun over great metropolises and with a promise which tends to become a reality.
The cities will be packed with "intelligent" vehicles which brake by themselves and travel bumper to bumper but in a very "intelligent" way. They will also drive on their own, from point A to point B, without any significant events, without exceeding the speed limits, without transmitting anything to their drivers.
How did we get here? How did we get to become happy about any French piece of crap which manages to compress four people into three meters of metal, into two meters... soon just in a single meter since it's much more economical this way.
The Prius is already a symbol of "modern people". Let's be serious, it's stupid, expensive and cluttered like the minds of the Japanese who created it in a moment of transcendental meditation... Don't you think we're exaggerating a bit? Don't you think we're actually lying to ourselves?
Wouldn't it be easier for those who need a simple and safe means of transportation from point A to point B to have a public transportation system as precise as a Swiss watch? Wouldn't it be easier if only the people who actually liked to drive should be allowed on the road?
Why do thousands of people have to stay put in traffic, driving with up to 8 km/h (5 mph) when they could all use a perfect public transportation system. One put together by the ones who are unfortunately heading our governments.
Look around you! Aren't you a lost sheep in traffic? Aren't you losing hours upon hours in a single day, dragging with your puny-engined econobox? Why are you buzzing everyone with your tin can, your cheap and soulless subcompact... Why don't you admit the fact that you don't have anything in common with the subject of cars and let others do this?
Others who might do it with dignity, with pleasure and without tripping over you or your friends, you know, the ones who don't even know how the dashboard lighter works, never mind the engine or other technical parts. Billions of dollars thrown away on studies, on crap like "intelligent cars" that want to eliminate the human factor out of the equation, to eliminate the stupidity of passing a driving license exam faster than you can get a mosquito-hunting permit.
Wouldn't it be more productive if all this money went towards building new and modern subway lines? Building fast and efficient trains which stop in every station and at every three minutes, no stop. OK, those can be "intelligent" and driverless...
I don't get what's with all this hysteria of eliminating the drivers, the people who really want to enjoy that goddamn car, on which they probably paid infinitely more than they're worth. I don't get why every person HAS to drive a car, when at least three quarters of them are driving pieces of junk that only take them a few lousy miles from home to the office and back.
We should all look in the mirror and the ones who can finally admit they have absolutely no connection to actually driving a car should make a total sacrilege. They should walk or use the fast and decent public transportation system. They should stop wriggling all over the road, confused, scared and uptight behind the wheel.
If this doesn't happen than we will all have to become like them. We live in a system that wants you stupid, obedient, without thinking or having any feelings, without having any amount pleasure outside the legal holidays – except when we're being called in to save the economy by buying something...
And I keep thinking that, if we're doing this after all – paying taxes upon taxes for this goddamn oil – why not get something in return as well? Straight, wide and long roads, without restrictions where they really shouldn't be, without stupid cops that hunt for your license in the middle of nowhere and especially without the stupid robots who shouldn't even be on a planet overrun by... people.
I hate robotized cars, sheep-behaving drivers, the dreaded direction towards the whole automotive industry – with all its loves and hates – is heading to. Who knows, maybe there's something that can be done about it. Maybe we can still set things right? Can we?
PS: probably while writing this text, 100,000 people's lives perished in a car accident. In 99% of the cases, the police will say that "speed" killed them, or carelessness, fatigue, etc. Not the system, not the fact that they were pushed from behind, forced to drive a car without having even a general clue about it. Cars, believe me or not... also have feelings and moods too. Sometimes I feel they're cleverer than most of the guys owning them... And I'm not talking about modern, robotized ones either.
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