Car Wars: a dystopian science fiction story about the nightmare of self-driving cars

boing
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That makes sense for people in dense urban areas, but millions of people live in suburban areas, smaller cities and town, and rural areas. Or need to go visit those areas. (reading your other comments shows you agree, but I will continue on none-the-less)

I completely agree that an automated system where you pay a monthly fee to have a car pick you up and take you to work or lunch or whatever makes a lot of sense for a lot of people. But not for a lot of others, so I think the demise of private ownership is a bit premature. Just like on demand services hasn’t completely destroyed DVD, CD, and now ever increased record sales.

Plus, especially in America, people are in love with their cars. Where are they going to put their Doctor Who and Star Wars stickers? People practically and literally live in them, some times. I have the exact specific super safe car seat in mine, plus all of my emergency stuff in the trunk, my cane and umbrella I rarely use, but want there if I need them, my kids gum, her tissue box, etc. Plus my kid lives 8 min from me. I won’t want to wait 10 min or 5 min or any lead time to pop in and go over if I need to.

Maybe I just have bad luck, but I have had electric problems - simple ones, relatively - in my cars over the years. Last one was something in the wiper/blinker stick not working right, blinking hazards constantly, and burning something with the brakes applied.

But I dunno, I guess there would be fewer accidents thus fewer new cars. But people often buy new cars because they want new cars. Not just from vanity, but because newer cars are nicer. Just like anything else, computers, phones, TVs, or anything else you use every day. I seem to be a dinosaur living in the “drive it until it dies” department.

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22

Tell that to owners of perfectly good equipment like my Epson scanner that is no longer supported by Window 10. I guarantee the System will require hardware upgrades just like Windows has required them for 20 years.

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An overhead VR callout of your net worth, of course.

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Thank you, Gregory!

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25

First RPG/wargame I ever played. It was my introduction to gaming geekdom.

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26

Fixed that for you.

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27

Excellent story and creative use of graphics! Also see “Version Control.”

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I hope to drive my Honda for another 100,000 miles, so you are not the only one in the drive it til it dies boat.

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29

I wonder how many people answered the last poll with a No vote because they don’t trust the security of their machine, their browser or the site…

Would you modify the software in your self-driving car to protect yourself, even if it was against the law?

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To bring it full circle, one of the major inspirations for the game Car Wars was the short story "Why Johnny can’t speed."
http://www.unz.org/Pub/GalaxySF-1971sep-00082

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31

You really don’t need that much density to make a car service work. Suburbs would work once there’s a sufficient pool of cars - you could have a car on demand with very little notice. I don’t know that streaming services vs. disks is a comparable dynamic, as the two aren’t functionally/qualitatively the same, necessarily. Some people will have a car because they like the idea of having one on hand, but don’t really need one, but as car services increase, there will be fewer and fewer of them, especially if there are significant cost savings. The way the middle class is going, most people won’t be able to afford to own their own car before long.

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32

Well that was unnecessarily dark. And Prof. Beliakov is a big old grump. I think he’s dead wrong about blocking kids from riding alone. It’s safer than hiring strangers to shuttle them around, or sleepy, distracted bus drivers. (http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/driver-tennessee-school-bus-crash-killed-5-children-had-left-n687851). You could totally control it via mobile app, sending notifications to parents if they deviate from approved routes. One of the huge bonuses inherent in a self-driving future is granting mobility to those who don’t have it now, including teenagers and those with physical disabilities. But hey, way to look on the worst case scenario side! Yeesh.

33

I can’t manage playing it anymore or any other game with that much record keeping.

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34

They’re releasing a totally redesigned streamlined version next year:

http://www.sjgames.com/ill/archive/August_01_2016/Car_Wars_Delayed_Until_2017

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35

I will have to check it out when it is released. I feel kind of bad I didn’t jump on the GINORMOUS EDITION OGRE kickstarter.

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36

I was tempted but sadly I have no space for it nor people to play against.

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That was my biggest reason for not getting it. There will be a smaller less complete version coming out if it isn’t already. (so not the whole OGRE GEV Shockwave components but not $100 either)

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Downsized version now released, and OGRE works pretty well as a solo game (the old OGRE Book included a system for partially randomising the OGRE’s behaviour).

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39

My Sovereign Car wouldn’t listen to any of that Admiralty Law from law enforcement systems. :stuck_out_tongue:

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40

I didn’t let that stop me. I’m still punching out the damn Chits.

(BTW - Anyone in the northern burbs of Chicago land up for a game of Ogre…the soundtrack from the kickstarter finally released yesterday.)

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