What if cars could say no?
Your car will drive you to hospital at 3 am. It won’t drive you two minutes to buy cigarettes.
The car stays put. The shop is two minutes away on foot.
Day 1
A driver asks for the corner shop, two minutes away. The car stays at the kerb and suggests walking.
That afternoon, the same car drives someone across the city to an emergency ward without a word. The rule is easy to understand, and almost everyone hates hearing it from a machine.
Year 1
Short trips become arguments. Some people hang on to an old car that does what it’s told, until insurers start charging extra for it. Buses and pavements get the journeys the new cars turn down.
You can appeal a refusal by pressing a button. It rarely works.
Year 10
Kids think of a car as something that sometimes says no, a bit like a parent. Town centres are quieter in the evening, when people used to drive to the shop for milk.
The argument never goes away: who decided which trips are pointless, and why is yours on the list?
Who wins
- Buses and pavementsEvery refused trip still has to happen somehow.
- Quieter streetsThe two-minute drive goes back to being a two-minute walk.
- HospitalsNobody argues about that part of the list.
Who loses
- People who drive everywhereThe kerb is as far as the car will go.
- Anyone who can’t walk farFor them, a refused trip is a real problem, not a lesson.
- Old carsInsurance turns them into a luxury.
Cars already overrule drivers in small ways, braking when we don’t and refusing to start for a drunk driver. Refusing where we want to go would feel very different, mostly because someone else wrote the list.
Would you buy a car that can say no?
0% said yes · 1 vote
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