The United States of America and the Culture of Automobile Safety, Increased Automation, and Environmental FriendlinessThe United States of America and the Culture of Automobile Safety, Increased Automation, and Environmental Friendliness One of the first impressions you make is with the vehicle you drive. A beat up 2000 Subaru Outback speaks of either the money- and safety-conscious middle-low income family, or of a first-time driver with a first-time car. A 2016 BMW speaks of money, steady income, and a consciousness of one’s image. A 1970 Chevy Impala speaks of classic tastes and the prioritization of car sturdiness. Minivans are for “soccer mom” types, SUVs are for outdoorsy types, and Ferraris are for the image-conscious road demon …show more content…
Lately, I’ve seen an incursion of automatic brakes and collision warning systems, both something I can appreciate. According to the LA Times, automated braking is set to become a standard feature in American automobiles by 2022, due to “an ‘unprecedented’ pact announced [on March 17th] between federal regulators and the auto industry” (Peltz, …show more content…
One incredible innovation that is significantly minimizing blind spots is “rear-mounted radar and multi-directional, multi-sensing” which are “already appearing in luxury models of automobiles, and will likely become standard in future years” (Lewis, n.d.). Automated braking and parking are two things, but another fascinating prospect we might be seeing even sooner than the projected standardization of automatic braking is, in fact, driverless vehicles. According to Business Insider’s John Greenough (2015), we may see up to ten million self-driving cars on American roads by the year 2020! This future may seem far-fetched, however, “Mercedes, BMW, and Tesla have already released, or are soon to release, self-driving features that give the car some ability to drive itself” (Greenough, 2015), which certainly makes this 2020 prediction several times more feasible. In “I, Robot” (Proyas, 2004), a film which takes place in 2035, there are numerous examples of self-driving cars that punctuate the futuristic, streamlined setting. The 2035 setting of “I, Robot” is looking more and more like an accurate portrayal of the technology we might have in our own 2035, not least in its portrayal of widely used self-driving cars and intelligent robotic household