And some of us are prepping for the 6th Edition, by making our own 3D Printed Models.
#DriveOffensively
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Even without self driving, I have gotten rid of my car because the combination of good public transportation and car sharing (Car2Go and DriveNow) has made owning a car an annoyance, not a convenience. For the record I live in Munich, Germany.
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I actually started with Orge before I got into Car Wars. Still have the Orge game, but got rid of Car Wars years ago.
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I’m in Nashville…driving to Chi town would be worth for a Orge game!
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I have those and the Shockwave expansion as well. Good times
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That’s so much easier to do in most European cities - there’s only a handful of US cities where it’s practical to not own a car. Ironically - and quite surprisingly, given the car culture here - the US actually has fewer cars per capita than most of Europe. The middle class has been so hollowed out that there are more people here who simply can’t afford to own a vehicle, even though they really need one (and plenty own a car even though they really can’t afford it, because it’s absolutely necessary). Americans paradoxically spend more time driving than Europeans - because everything is designed around automobiles, those who do have cars spend a lot more hours behind the wheel. Affordable autonomous ride programs have a huge potential user base in the US.
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‘I’m sorry, Car, but I’ve been seized with a sudden gastrointestinal problem. Could you please find me a toilet?’
I’m not boarding a self-driving car that has neither an on-board pot nor a function like that!
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Well in my story the car was more of a minivan/small RV, with a small restroom.
Of course, you know, some of this doesn’t make perfect sense for the sake of forcing the scenario. And I was 16 when I thought of it. Honestly I am surprised it has held up as well as it has.
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Ironically - and quite surprisingly, given the car culture here - the US actually has fewer cars per capita than most of Europe.
I don’t think this is true. According to Wikipedia, there are only two countries with more cars per capita than the US. Both of them (San Marino and Monaco) are tiny tax-havens surrounded entirely by much larger countries- so there may be some incentive for Italians living nearby to register their cars in San Marino, or French people to register theirs in Monaco.
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I assume you’re talking about the Wikipedia article that counts all ‘road motor vehicles,’ excluding two-wheelers, not cars. I found that confusing when I first saw it as well, until I noticed they point out, “Please consider that car is different from road motor vehicle” - because ‘road motor vehicle’ includes commercial vehicles. Apparently the US makes up for a lack of personal cars with a whole heck of a lot of commercial/delivery vehicles, which makes sense given the size of the country, sparsely settled nature of much of it and lack of train infrastructure to ship goods compared to Europe.
A comparison of personal, passenger vehicles from 2012 shows something different (and totally counter-intuitive):
via:
Although you do also have to consider that a lot of Americans use pickup trucks, which may well not be counted as “passenger vehicles”, as their personal vehicle. IIRC the Ford F-150 is still the bestselling vehicle in the US.
Having looked at the article you link, buried in the comments there’s a link to the original study which states that “The U.S. figure for passenger cars does not include light trucks, vans, or sport utility vehicles”. Add those in (or even only those used as personal not commercial vehicles) and there are probably a lot more cars in the US…
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I had several friends in Texas that honestly felt an F150 was a commuting vehicle.
Granted, I drove mine back and forth to my real IT job, but that was largely because I needed a truck for various truck things and the 10 miles each way was cheaper in the long run than a third car.
Huh, the article claimed, in an update, that the statistics used count all “‘passenger vehicles,’ which means cars, pickup trucks, SUVs, and minibuses. It does not include commercial freight trucks or buses with over nine seats.” So they doubled down on incorrect information, I guess. So apparently no one is actually counting the number of total passenger vehicles, but given that it was making an extraordinary claim, it seems safe to assume the US does have more passenger vehicles per capita. It seemed really strange that wasn’t the case, just out of the pure necessity of driving in all but a couple US cities. My world was all topsy turvy for a while there. Now I can go back to the reassuring fact that Americans are incredibly, incredibly wasteful.
Well before self-driving cars are common, self driving buses will be trundling along our streets. Buses also have the advantage of being more efficient from a space and fuel* efficiency measure.
*whether electric fuel or combustable fuel is used.
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The problem is that our tort law, criminal law and insurance systems are built around the concept of individual liabillty…driver is reckless, distracted or intoxicated and is the cause of the fatality.
If and when a preprogrammed response (deliberately designed and installed by the manufacturer) to a trolley scenario causes fatalities, the court cases are going to be a sight to see.
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