{"id":61989,"date":"2019-05-08T08:34:58","date_gmt":"2019-05-08T15:34:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/?p=61989"},"modified":"2019-11-12T09:24:38","modified_gmt":"2019-11-12T17:24:38","slug":"is-there-a-future-for-the-automobile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/is-there-a-future-for-the-automobile\/","title":{"rendered":"Is There a Future for the Automobile?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Is<\/p>\n

The second annual \u201cFuture of the Automobile\u201d conference, held the first Friday of May at the Petersen Automotive Museum, was certainly a confluence of art and automobiles in Los Angeles. Bringing together vehicle manufacturers, technology savants, urban planners and regulatory agencies for extended discussions on future mobility, there was a lot of ground to cover in this single day and overlapping conversations made it difficult to access every single presentation.<\/p>\n

Appropriately, the museum\u2019s executive director Terry Karges started the day-long program with an opening panel highlighting visions of tomorrow. The Petersen, celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2019, elected to use the Bruce Meyer Family Gallery for this and several other presentations, allowing both speakers and attendees to be surrounded by many of Meyers\u2019 fabulous vehicles as they talked about transforming how people move from one place to another. Meyers was on hand for the program.<\/p>\n

In all of the discussions, speakers recognized that the automobile will continue to be one of many forms of transportation. Its form and format may change, but it was accepted, by these panels at least, that the automobile does have a direct future, at least in the near term. Whether through single ownership or shared participation, vehicles as we know them will continue.<\/p>\n

Whether they will be powered by internal combustion engines, battery electric, hydrogen, hybrid technology, fuel cell or another propellant yet to be discovered is anyone\u2019s guess, but vehicles will definitely continue. As Stewart Reed, chairman of transportation design at Pasadena\u2019s Art Center College of Design, pointed out, at the 1939 World\u2019s Fair in New York City, General Motors produced Futurama, which portended the appearance of automated highways with cars navigating traffic by way of \u201cautomatic radio control.\u201d<\/p>\n

That hasn\u2019t happened 80 years later, but we are on the verge of autonomous vehicles and their technology is becoming far less radical than it was even five or 10 years ago. All-electric cars are on the road; autonomous features are available in many vehicles today and will continue to grow.<\/p>\n

Infrastructure is the biggest issue facing municipalities that are looking to move people out of their personal cars, onto public transportation or shared rides. As members of Los Angeles\u2019 Metro, Department of Transportation and other forward-thinking public entities explained, large cities like Los Angeles desperately need a transit redesign that is more efficient for both users and operators.<\/p>\n

Educating the public is one aspect, but before cities push an unwilling populace onto trains, buses or even scooters in densely populated cities, cities, counties and states need to produce proposals that are clear for the public to understand what they\u2019re voting for. In California, for instance, people voted to produce high-speed rail, despite lacking a clear understanding of any logic behind the proposal. At this time a train from LA to San Francisco area is on life support, thanks to cost overruns and the proliferation of consultants who enriched themselves without producing a single mile of rail.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, as the discussions resounded concerning highs-speed rail, more efficient public transportation and vehicular travel without pesky gas-burning automobiles, very little input came from anyone concerning electric vehicles, which are gaining popularity in the Los Angeles area. Discussing the future of infrastructure and city planning, at no time did any of the participants address the issue of easily accessible charging stations for electric vehicles.<\/p>\n

While some were addressing artificial intelligence and autonomy in driving, this writer chose to discuss the future of vehicle ownership and ridesharing. How important is it to own a vehicle? Is it a right or a rite? With the head of ride-swapping Turo on-hand, along with Henrik Fisker of Fisker Inc., the discussion trended to innovation, which participants agreed never looks like what we\u2019ve expected. Doug Clark of Hagerty, one of the sponsors of the conference, spoke to experiential driving. With so many vehicles parked for much of their lives, Turo intends to change that perception and make it less of a reality as people swap vehicles for the experiences they\u2019re looking for.<\/p>\n

During the luncheon break at mid-day participants were able to experience some of Hagerty\u2019s vintage vehicles – all had automatic transmissions – taking rides and drives in a Ford Bronco, a Mercedes-Benz 280DSL and American Austin coupe. Once that was done, McKeel Hagerty of Hagerty gave the afternoon keynote – the morning keynote came from VW\u2019s Klaus Bischoff, who spoke to his company\u2019s push towards electric vehicles for street and racetrack (like the Pikes Peak-conquering ID.R) – and Hagerty went full-frontal on the human value of cars and driving.<\/p>\n

We have to realize, Hagerty said, that culture drives technological decisions. He\u2019s excited about the future of automotive technology and believes that cars do matter in the coming economy. We need a blend of old and new in vehicular technology, Hagerty mused, as he extolled the value of the personal vehicle. While public transportation is available in hub cities, it\u2019s not always practical in California\u2019s large and small towns.<\/p>\n

Hagerty\u2019s keynote finished around 3PM and, while the conference was slated to continue for at least another hour and a half, there was the prospect of sitting in Los Angeles\u2019 frustrating traffic jams and not making it home until 7PM. As it was, the commute to this conference took up nearly three hours of Friday\u2019s allocation of time, thus bringing the point to the fore: Something needs to be done to ease congestion on our roads. The question is, what changes are needed and which are wanted?<\/p>\n