The Ruling Class vs. The Car Lovers

The guy who writes this column has been around cars for a long, long, time.

Here he talks a little bit about the Ruling Class' plans for your car.

[A very influential automotive exec] expressed much trepidation about the agenda being put forth by the Connected, Autonomous, Ride-Sharing Imperative Zealots, as I refer to them, because it will impact all of us, whether we want to go along for the ride or not.
 
The country is racing headlong into an abyss of bleak unfamiliarity when it comes to our transportation fleet, and the fundamental rift between the “Zealots” and the “Realists” will only grow more intense over time. As I said last week, this means that there will be a clear demarcation going forward that will be cause for much consternation, on both sides.

We will have auto companies being forced to service the commoditization side of the business by churning out, for all intents and purposes, true appliances for the sharing masses, and all the ugliness that will entail. This is the arena that Silicon Valley has jumped in with both feet, and the Realists at the global automakers are scrambling to meet this threat head on, or make deals with the tech protagonists in order to make sure that they’re not left behind.

The chief executive I spoke to last week said that his company is being forced to participate in both arenas, even though his concern and primary focus, as he told me, “must remain on designing, engineering and building automobiles with passion, vehicles that will have genuine, useful appeal to people for years and years to come.”

I was encouraged by his words but it also puts forth a crucial distinction, because the harsh reality for the Connected Zealots is that it will be a very long time before even a slice of their vision for a utopian driving future makes a dent in our society, and even then it will still be largely confined to the most major of urban centers. Think about that for a moment, because the hype is far exceeding the reality surrounding this subject....

Your car is the next target.