Opinion: Why I’m ready to give up driving

I’ve been driving for 36 years, which is two years longer than I’ve had a driver’s licence. 

You see, I was an impatient teen keen to hit the open road, even if it meant borrowing Mum’s car in the middle of the night... before I got my licence. 

Luckily for me, nobody got hurt during my one illicit Midnight Run, and the policeman who ended our adventure was understanding enough to leave the punishment to my very angry parents.

Since then I’ve driven thousands of cars in dozens of countries on roads too numerous to count. 

And now I’ve had enough. I’m ready to give up driving and let Skynet take over. 

But only at certain times. 

I no longer want to drive to work and back. I am happy to cede control to the vehicle itself or some Artificial Intelligence overlord in return for 14 waking hours of my life each week. 

I just wish cars were ready to take over. 

Since I left the city for a satellite town last year, my commute has jumped from 15 to 90 minutes each way. It was my choice to move, and I understood that my commute would take time. Also, I’m sure 90 minutes is nothing to whinge about compared to some other Australians.

Still, I use that time wisely. Not only do I get to test the car in typical conditions, but I also catch up on various podcasts. I’m bingeing Hamish Blake’s How Other Dads Dad right now, which I highly recommend to all new dads, because you’re not alone.

There are two main reasons I want to surrender the commute to AI. The first is to reduce stress, and the second is to reduce stress. 

The first stress reduction would come by taking me out of the equation. 

I get annoyed at erratic drivers, inattentive drivers and ignorant drivers. I get annoyed at selfish drivers who block intersections. I get annoyed at slower drivers in the right-hand lane. I get annoyed by drivers who speed up so I can’t legally overtake them in the right lane and then move over for cars behind. 

I get annoyed by illogical speed limits and poorly programmed traffic lights. I get annoyed by arrogant pedestrians, surly cyclists, obstructive cabbies and oblivious Uber drivers. I also get annoyed by trucks driving beside each other up a hill well below the speed limit. 

In fact, if you’re doing anything that unnecessarily slows other traffic down, then you probably annoy me. Every driver should focus on getting where they need to go and also on not impeding anyone else from doing the same. 

My annoyance is not overpowering – I'm not about to go postal – but I acknowledge that this reflects poorly on me. Every road user is entitled to use the road legally and safely, and not all vehicles or drivers can drive at the speed limit. If I just took a breath and had more patience, I wouldn’t let those situations stress me. But I am who I am, and I just wish all drivers were competent and committed to the task. 

The second stress reliever comes from the time I will get back. 

Instead of leaving at 6.45am to ‘beat the traffic’ into work by 8am – which never works – I could leave at 8.00am and be on the (mobile) desk at 8.01am. I could also leave work at 3.30pm and get home/clock off just after 5pm, thus giving me the evenings with my family after having done a day’s work.

While the car drives itself, I could attend virtual meetings, write Op Eds like this one, finish the two reviews and two comparos in my backlog, or prep for upcoming work. Or I could check out and respond to your comments on my published articles. Or the million other administrivial tasks our jobs require. 

So that’s why I’m ready to give up driving during my daily commute.

If we all agree to do this, then the roads should – in theory – be safer and flow more efficiently. But even if this doesn’t cut down commute times, I won’t care because I will be making better use of that time.  

But… and it’s a big but… I worry about how the government will react to partial autonomy if it proves a safety benefit. 

They will push for more and more autonomous driving zones and greater restrictions on human control of cars. Eventually, it will prevent me from driving when I actually want to, like in a sports car or on a fun road or just to remember how enjoyable driving can be.

And I don’t ever want to give that up.