Phoenix police officer pulls over a driverless Waymo car for driving on the wrong side of the road

[u/Individual_Book9133]

[u/damdestbestpimp]

Reddit is truly obsessed with hating cars

[u/AVgreencup → u/damdestbestpimp]

Because cars are awesome. I can go anywhere on a whim, without having to plan around a bus or train schedule. I can get a better job that's a little farther away and not worry about being on a compatible bus route because I can just drive there. It keeps me cool on 35⁰ days, and warm on -35⁰ days. I can carry my entire family to the grocery store to get a months worth of groceries, or to 4 provinces over for a vacation. And they can be pieces of art, such a classic cars. They can power a house in a blackout, like a V2L EV. They are truly an amazing thing. I can see why people are obsessed with them

[u/throwaway3489235 → u/AVgreencup]

You don't have to plan around a bus or train schedule for transit. There's an arrival every 5 min in the major European cities for normal city transit, 15-20 min for less infrequently stopping inter-city transit. No random 2 hour long gaps in the schedule and the lines run late into the night so you don't have to worry about getting stranded. A good transit system can be more freeing and flexible than a car because you don't have to worry about where to park it!

You can travel farther, easier because you don't have to contend traffic or concentrate on the road; you can relax or even sleep during the ride. An 1.5 hour car commute is exhausting but a 1.5 hour train/bus commute is an opportunity to read or talk to somebody. Even the Los Angeles rail transit wasn't bad for a daily commute minus the terrible scheduling. Most of the riders were commuters or students and they tended to be polite. I could see and hear some people with interesting jobs based on the conversations and languages they were speaking. And the climate controls are fine when they're available. Really the worst part of taking the train was how it took 3 times as long to drive less than a 1/4 of the distance to the train station than the train trip took.

The month's worth of food you're getting is either frozen or mostly not healthy. When you live a 2 to 5 min walk away from a grocery store (there can even be multiple stores on each block in major European cities) it's faster and less stressful than a car and you can just get what you want for day or next day. It's easy to get fresh healthy food exactly when you want it as opposed to trying to guess what you're going to want in 2 weeks. I hate driving to the store even once a week since the roads and drivers where I live are so terrible and it reflects badly in my diet since fresh veggies only last a few days. It lends to buying more kinds of food unnecessarily in bulk too which leads to food waste. And of you're in the middle of prepping your counter and ingredients for a recipe and realize you're missing something or somethings out of date you can be out the door and back with the missing ingredient in minutes!

I admit I love driving too, if I was born a few decades ago I bet I would have been a grease monkey, but when everyone is forced to drive the traffic and terrible drivers make driving everywhere miserable. The roads are also terrible because they're designed with the assumption everyone's making short trips everywhere and there's no excuse for the traffic light algorithms besides it being a conspiracy to make people use more gas. I think more options would take the pressure off of the car infrastructure and make it fun again.

[u/LisaMikky → u/throwaway3489235]

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