Getting the most out of your driver's licence vs. Spielbergian visions of the futureIn terms of driving, I'm something of a late bloomer. I passed my test when I was 24, having never really needed a car before then - save for the inevitable haul of possessions from one rented room to another when I was a student, and my long-suffering parents saw to that. My dad, by comparison, started driving when he was 17. By the time he's an old man, he'll have driven many thousands of miles in a pretty respectable variety of vehicles: several Minis, a Land Rover Defender, an Austin Maestro and a dozen other cars from my youth, and more recently a Volvo, a Nissan and a Lexus. So by the time he hangs up his driving gloves, my dad will have got some pretty serious use out of that driver's licence. It has qualified him for a lifetime's use of mankind's most practical, widely-used, and well-loved form of transport - the automobile. Focus vs. Capri
Most people you ask would agree that cars have changed pretty radically since the 1970's (when my dad bought his first Mini) - in terms of styling, safety features, economy, the integration of computers and so on.
But their basic function and the layout of controls has altered very little. You wouldn't consider someone under-qualified to drive a Ford Focus because they learnt in a Capri, even though 30-odd years of engineering separate the two cars.
Perhaps you can see where I'm going with this. In another 30 years, will cars still be being built to the same basic form as a Capri? Will cars still be being built at all? As a concerned consumer, who shelled-out a good £60 in test fees and several hundred more on a year's worth of driving lessons, will I get as good a return on my investment in driving as my father has? Minority Report
I'd love to say it was something a bit more credible (Blade Runner for instance), but the above thoughts in fact first occurred to me whilst watching the Tom Cruise vehicle "Minority Report" a couple of months ago.
The film's set in Washington D.C. in 2054, a time and a place in which I (by then a sprightly 70-something) might be reasonably be expected to drive around. But not if director Steven Spielberg has anything to do with it. In his vision of 2050's D.C., folks get across town not by car, but by the so-called 'MAG-LEV' system - basically a massive up-scaling of the technology behind (or under) the bullet train. Car-like capsules which run on a series of magnetised tracks ferry people directly from their living rooms to any given destination. The cityscape resembles a massive skatepark, with criss-crossed tram lines running in all directions across massive cambered roadways and up the sides of buildings like a series of overlapping half-pipes. The capsules themselves, built to resemble mini sitting rooms with recliners, mood lighting and a wide glass roof that reminds you of a conservatory, are intended as an extra living space when docked to your city apartment - and a home away from home when ferrying you from A to B. Beyond punching in a destination, there's pretty much zero effort involved for the 'driver' of such a contrivance. Entirely automated running of the MAG-LEV system removes the element of human error and, so the film tells us, the chance of an accident. I guess that means cheap young driver car insurance premiums, or no motor insurance at all, which is pretty cool in a risk-free environment. So you can call me a grumpy old man (and by 2054 I will be) when I point out that if we all get MAG-LEV in the next few years my £60 photocard licence is going to see more service spreading grout than it is helping me get around. Provided grout doesn't get superseded too, of course. Backwards compatibility
Now there's another side to the argument about driver licensing and the design of cars, which runs: "Are we being held back by the pressure from consumers to keep re-inventing the car, when we should really concentrate on inventing the MAG-LEV (or similar far-out transportation of the future)?"
Maybe the pressure of old licence holders like my future self will get in the way of such Spielbergian visions as are presented in Minority Report. You see, I can't help liking the idea of the automobile enduring long after a more practical alternative becomes available, and it's not just about the £60. I like cars so much I spent a year (and practically a year's salary, factoring in a young driver car insurance premium) learning how to drive one. And if the future offers a choice between driving to work in a beat-up Maestro or a remote-controlled sitting room, I know which I'd go for.
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