So I was at the gas station filling up today and taking a real good look at both a current generation Chevrolet Impala and a current generation Nissan Maxima and I was thinking to myself commuter cars are really starting to get attractive again. Stylish headlights and grills, body lines that didn't scream "performance" but also didn't weep "lame." Then I started to think about how Ford, Mazda, Kia, and a handful of other car makers are really on point with their designs right now. Then my mind wandered like it usually does and I got to wondering, when self driving cars get here, will people still feel the sense of attachment to their cars that makes styling so important? Or will everything get ugly or at least, bland? Apple and McLaren are polar opposites of each other for style and if this goes through, I dread the final results. I was just having a though experiment this morning. I swear. I never asked for this.
I'm halfway to talking myself into one of the new Civics. I think the important consideration is that those who don't give a fuck about cars, they can continue not giving a fuck about cars - self-driving or otherwise. For those of us who give entirely too much of a fuck about cars, we weren't gonna buy a self-driving one anyway and if we can get it as an option we'll think about it but it's still our car, not Google's.
Intoxicated inverse question: When we are paying to use X company's car for Y trip, will cars become exaggerated stylistically because they are easily swapped out and now able to be a part of our daily style?Then my mind wandered like it usually does and I got to wondering, when self driving cars get here, will people still feel the sense of attachment to their cars that makes styling so important? Or will everything get ugly or at least, bland?
You know, I'd actually be pretty interested in a self driving equivalent of LMP1. Edit: my statement stands, but my mind just caught up with what you said. I have no clue what Shelby Hertz actually is, and my google fu is failing for the moment. 2nd Edit: ah. now I see.
The deal with the Hertz Corporation to offer ~1,000 G.T. 350s for rental that, after their rental-car lives were finished, were returned to Ford, refurbished, and sold to the public as "G.T. 350H" models.[11] Most Hertz cars were black with gold LeMans stripes and rocker panel stripes, although a few were white with blue stripes. The first 85 Hertz cars were available with four-speed manual transmissions and Hertz advertised them as "Rent-a-Racer" cars.[12] During rental, these cars were sometimes used as production class cars at SCCA events, and were rumored to have been returned to Hertz with evidence of roll bars being welded in.[12]
Seeing as how Apple tries to lock down their products as much as possible, I can see mechanics being outright unemployed. "Looks like your spark plugs are down to the nubs and you need a new 02 sensor. We can't replace either and your warranty is up. I guess you're fuxked."