Are We *REALLY* Going to Abandon Car Ownership?

That’s a topic is it not?

Headline: Young Americans are Abandoning Car Ownership and Driving

From around 2005 until recently, headlines throughout the U.S. proclaimed that Americans were shunning home ownership.

Millennials, it seemed, we’re passionate about Tiny Homes, the affordability of renting, and the more “environmentally friendly” (supposedly) lifestyle of urbanism and dense living.

Throughout that timeframe, unemployment was high, economic stability was questionable, University education costs exploded, and young technologist were getting wealthy while trying to afford places like Silicon Valley.

People tend to say things that make them feel good about their lot in life.

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Recent News: Homeownership is on the rise thanks to young buyers

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So much for those opinions.

Now, granted, car ownership is different. Fair point.

And Uber and the promise of autonomous vehicles makes the idea of actually owning a car seem unquestionably passé.

Still…

Young, urban, tech savvy populations see no need to own a car. They have little need to own a car. Indeed, owning a car may be more expensive than walking to work.

Keep in mind though, the United States, if we can focus there, is still a sprawling country, and as far as I know, it always will be…. They’ve not invented a way to bring Houston closer to Austin.

Young people starting to have families have shifting from being happy in a tiny apartment downtown to doing what we all do as we age: moving to room for families and with yards and fields for soccer.

And then they start asking the inevitable next question, “when it is time to replace that Mini Cooper with a Mini Van?”

Let’s cut to the chase… to be honest, I love the idea of just getting a car to come to my house and take me where I want to go. Truth be told, in that circumstance my family probably doesn’t really need two cars.

But let’s keep being honest…

My family of 5 loads a trunk full of groceries every week. We shuttle friends to swim practice and birthday parties. We haul things we need from Home Depot.

And that’s just the reality of being in a home in our 30s and 40s.

We’re still a sprawling country and the “road trip” is an experience truly American.

Everyone in my extended family (uncles, aunts, and so forth) spends weeks a year on the road, vacationing.

Imagine calling an Uber to get from Denver to Idaho for that ski trip.

It’s not possible for me to get from my home to that meeting in San Antonio. Not possible without driving. And an Uber would cost $300.

I’d love to get down to one car, sure. And maybe that’s the honest appreciation for the auto industry to take. But abandoning car ownership entirely??? Decades away if at all.

Cars Define Us

We used to cherish our cars as a reflection of our personality. The art deco cars, the fins of the 50s, the Woody, the Beetle.

The auto industry commoditized cars and really ruined their appeal in their drive to make them affordable boxes on wheels.

I can see myself getting rid of that generic Toyota but in doing so, what would I love to “own”?

A car with meaning and character

What might really change in this revolution to driverless cars is that we return to an era when an automobile meant something to us.

The generic means of mobility will be called by a mobile app.

And instead of scraping together $50,000 for TWO cars, I can spend $30,000 on something we’ll love and cherish. That is, if the auto industry realizes that we’re not abandoning car ownership, there is some bias in all the people who don’t today *need* them, we still want an experience that reflects who we are and enables us to get on the road on our terms.

Think I’m wrong?

“Rolls-Royce has always made autonomous cars,” its urbane CEO, Torsten Müller-Ötvös, once told me. “But instead of the software driving, we use a chauffeur.”

The Rise of Electric and Self-Driving Cars Won’t Mean the Death of Luxury Cars. Here’s Why.

WAY back when car ownership mean having a driver or mechanic. Besides even in Rolls-Royce’s perspective that it only applies to the wealthy… WAY back when, in the earliest days of the automobile, people who bought that car often needed the mechanic or driver along with them to make sure it worked. We’re not going to revert back to that need, obviously, but we bought cars because we wanted them, we wanted the mobility, we wanted the personality; the human condition has nothing to do with needing to drive - the automobile is a defining characteristic of who we are.

“I also think that the supposed idea pushed by self-driving car advocates (“It’s all going to be robo-uber and nobody will own their own car”) is pretty unlikely. I’m sure it will be a thing, and likely popular in urban areas, but lots and lots of people will still own cars. “ — Chris Everett

Notably in the data, the “trend” of giving up cars seems related to the economy… Not some desire to give up cars.

Eric Adams, veteran transportation journalist, in Forbes: No, Car Ownership Will Not Die