How Modern Car Technology Can Kill or Enhance the Driving Experience

How Modern Car Technology Can Kill or Enhance the Driving Experience

How Modern Car Technology Can Kill or Enhance the Driving Experience

Lucy Wyndham
14 November 2017

Photo by Chris Leipelt on Unsplash

Modern technology might or might not kill the pleasure of a driving experience. The advent of many technologies to create the perfect and safe car is borne out of not only presenting innovative styles, making purchases interesting or improving sales; it is also to enhance the safety of every road user from drivers and pedestrians to bystanders and passengers. Each year, around 1.3 million people perish worldwide due to road crashes or an average of 3,287 deaths per day according to the Association for Safe International Travel. Roughly 20-60 million are injured or disabled. Pedestrians get killed, cyclists are struck and drivers collide. This is one of the reasons why technology keeps on improving cars to deliver a seamless driving experience. But whether everyone agrees on this or not is up for debate.

Commutes and Travel

If you spend your time in cars stuck in traffic and watching the endless parade of vehicles in front of you, then you will welcome the deployment of self-driving vehicles. The car of the future is targeted to achieve Level 5 automation. That means you tell the car where you want to go and it will do the rest. Robotics and automation will ensure that you, pedestrians and other motorists are safe. No more worries about paying attention to the road or getting frustrated at obnoxious drivers. It will even be self-parking. It will probably be equipped with payment technologies so that when tolls or parking fees are needed, it will do this automatically. There will be less accidents, mortalities and injuries. Traffic will probably improve. In this sense, it is an enjoyable ride without the stress and anxiety associated with real driving.

Another benefit of automation technology is that it can benefit people with disabilities or seniors who are not capable of driving anymore due to normal effects of aging (poor eyesight, slower reflexes or memory retention) or an illness. In between are people, who do not really relish the idea of driving but do so because they need to get to work or run errands. If you are one of these types of drivers, then you would find the self-driving vehicles are manna from heaven. You can go where you please with little thought to the driving itself. And yes, that will be a pleasing experience.

Personal Driving Experience

On the other side of the argument is that modern technology is going to take out the pleasure of driving. Car lovers and gearheads will surely find this true with many saying that the delight in driving disappeared since electronics were introduced. At any level of automation, robots and computers take control of the vehicle. There will be no paddleboards and pedals let alone a steering wheel. Is that really driving? The sensory experience of connecting to the vehicle, controlling it, testing its power, shifting – gearing down or up, braking and so on are what makes the encounter so special and in a way, gratifying. You certainly won’t find this is in modern vehicles or autonomous cars. So yes, modern technology is going to take the life out of a thrilling driving experience.

Without a doubt, there are many perceived benefits of modern technology applications in vehicle automation. It improves commutes, enhances road safety and reduces accidents, injuries & mortality. But for those who love real driving and cars, technology merely helps deliver good rides because when it comes to safety, humans and even robots can err.