Never Stop Driving #105: Victory Lap

Halfway through 2024, I’m shocked and awed at the bursting of the autonomous vehicle bubble. The notion that driving could be outlawed in exchange for robot-driven taxis was floated in 2015 by Elon Musk, and longtime automotive executive and consummate car guy Bob Lutz soon concurred. For those of us who take great pleasure in wheeling a good car down a good road, things looked very grim indeed. The founder of a company that made AV (autonomous vehicle) hardware even went so far as to politely inform Hagerty CEO McKeel Hagerty: “I am very sorry, but I am going to put your company out of business.”  

Having listened thousands of times to the 1981 Rush song Red Barchetta, which was visually imagined in this YouTube video, I was well aware of a future vision where cars were outlawed. As much as I loved driving and cars, I could also see the potential benefits of robot drivers, namely fewer fatal crashes and potentially less congestion. I also know that you can’t stop technology, no matter how much I wish my kids didn’t have smartphones.

Over its 40-year history, Hagerty’s always fostered the love of cars, and we knew we were perfectly positioned to carry the torch. Cars and driving matter. Around 2016, McKeel and Soon Hagerty restated the company’s purpose: To save driving and car culture for future generations. Boom. That didn’t mean we advocated the fool’s errand of stopping new technology. Rather, we would be on the front lines of ensuring that car enthusiasts who wanted to drive would always be able to do so.

Thus began our regular drumbeat celebrating cars, driving, and the folks who love them. To illustrate how cars positively benefited people’s lives, we started a video series called “Why I Drive.” The May/June 2018 issue of Hagerty Drivers Club magazine—get future issues by joining here—investigated possible future AV scenarios and suggested the techno-hype might be just that: hype. McKeel and I traveled the country, hosting seminars with industry leaders to get a sense of the technology and make the case for the preservation of driving. To emphasize our position and philosophies, we even wrote a book, Never Stop Driving, a Better Life Behind the Wheel, and later added an audio version. The reviews have been enormously positive, so give it a read or listen this summer.

This newsletter and the Never Stop Driving podcast are also part of our strategy to continually advocate for drivers. We are not alone in our campaign; writer and philosopher Matt Crawford published a book in 2020 called Why We Drive: Toward a Philosophy of the Open Road.

Meanwhile, the automotive industry dove into AVs. Ford and VW bankrolled Argo AI. GM invested billions in Cruise. Apple reportedly was working on an autonomous car. Uber built a self-driving unit. Google/Waymo was way ahead of everyone, and my heart fell when the powerful player unveiled a Playskool-like autonomous pod.

The tide has definitely shifted, the AV hype machine grinding to a brief halt when an Uber prototype struck and killed a pedestrian in 2018, a tragedy that highlighted a major question: In an accident, who’s responsible? The driver or the car? Last year, we learned that, in this case, it was the driver. In the past two years, Argo AI shut down, GM slowed its investments in Cruise, and Musk’s repeated promises that true self-driving (known as Level 5) was months away came and went. And came and went.

Now, the automotive industry is again embracing cars that provoke emotion in drivers, passengers, and onlookers. Last fall, Chevy changed its tagline from “Find New Roads” to “Together Let’s Drive” which, I proudly note, is awfully close to Hagerty’s “Let’s drive together.” Toyota produced an animated series called Grip, where the bad guy makes autonomous cars and declares the era of self-driving is over. Ford CEO Jim Farley says Ford will also preserve the art of driving both on- and off-road. Sound familiar?

Furthermore, sports-car and Formula 1 racing have never been so flush with car-company dollars and fans. It’s like the world was jolted to embrace something—driving—that was taken for granted until it was threatened. And let’s not ignore the reality that autonomous technology proved to be far harder and costlier to develop than anyone predicted. It turns out that humans and robots don’t mix well, at least so far.

Technology will not stop its relentless progression, of course, and we can expect driver-assistance systems that offer more and more help behind the wheel. Waymo is now operating driverless fleets in San Francisco and Phoenix, and the technology will increasingly be deployed in congested urban areas. But I haven’t heard of anyone who still thinks driving will be outlawed in our lifetimes. Whew.

This is my last newsletter before a two-week summer break. I’m heading east to visit family in Vermont and upstate New York. I’ll be seeking out curvy roads with lush tree canopies, perfect for my 1990 Miata. I hope that you also enjoy some wheel time and feel the same satisfaction that more and more people recognize what we already knew: Driving matters.

There will be plenty of fresh Hagerty material to keep you informed and entertained in my absence. Bookmark hagerty.com/media and our YouTube channel and, of course, we’re on the social platforms, too!

Catch you in July!

Larry

P.S.: Your feedback and comments are welcome.

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