I am 42 years old. At least once everyday I feel like I have been transported into a sci-fi film from my childhood. My smart watch reminds me of a children’s show that aired on Doordarshan in the 80s or 90s in which people spoke into a watch-like device going ‘commander to commander’ to communicate with each other from different locations. Having said that, I am still waiting for our personal commute to be airborne like in the Jetsons – the American animated sitcom produced by Hanna Barbera that aired on Cartoon Network. We do have cars that have finally found a solution for depleting non-renewable resources. Not as exciting as flying to office and school everyday but exciting nonetheless.
Even entry level cars today come with elevated safety features. Simultaneously all automobile companies have made a foray into EVs and HUVs in response to customer desire to reduce individual carbon footprints and in response to government policies and regulations to become more environmentally friendly. Although this won’t be a reality until we have clean electricity. Yet, the on road emissions per vehicle are eliminated or minimised.
What we are seeing is that the trend of caring for the environment has smoothly transitioned from people to their cars and their governments. Cars have become an extension of the owner in their care for their own and the environment’s safety while driving. Yet, there is a growing segment of people who are choosing to not own a car at all. This may change if we had flying cars. Until then, there is a miniscule section of people who understand that to really serve the planet we need to shift our reliance from personal to public transport. A comparatively larger set is opting out of car ownership to avoid the swelling traffic congestion and overall maintenance and upkeep costs and diminishing parking space. It is becoming increasingly impractical to own your own car. This poses a challenge to cars being bought for utility. However the segment that buys cars for status showcase or as collectibles, cars are getting super exciting – just short of taking flight.
As cars slowly but surely turn electric and digital in varying degrees, much like with smart mobile phones, luxury features keep turning into standard features. Of course luxury brands are not giving up without a fight. Samsung launched phones that can be folded like cardboard. If you have not been following the latest news from the world of luxury cars, check out this link about BMW’s magical colour changing model – a car that can change colours by the click of a button on their app. You better believe it. Audi has just got rid of their 4 ring logo in China to appeal to their increasingly younger luxury buyer. Tata owned Jaguar has relaunched as an ‘electric only brand’ with a logo refresh. Connected cars are the big talk of town (something no science fiction story directly imagined) which keep us apprised of LIVE incidents on the road we are on. – helping us avoid accident prone situations etc. What’s more! We also have self-driving cars.
Car and bike enthusiasts who loved their rides for their muscle and roar are warming up to the inevitable shift in gears to (pardon the poor pun) to EVs. There is no doubt that automobiles have made an eventful journey from ICE (internal combustion engines) to EVs(Electric Vehicles) and HUVs(Hybrid Utility Vehicles) but this shift in attitude of motor enthusiasts is probably a giant leap for mankind. We are moving into the era of the Hybrid – be it in the way we work or in our cars, our robotic vacuum cleaners or lip and cheek tints. We are also turning a new leaf in environmental consciousness – as a natural extension of health and fitness consciousness becoming mainstream preoccupation.
Luxury still has its own role to play for all the poor little rich people, wanting to feel their hard or easy-earned wealth in a way that’s compulsorily inaccessible to the rest. The remaining population seems to be slowly shifting away from the flash value of their purchases towards practicality, cost efficiency, environment friendliness, freedom and convenience – sometimes leading to the choice of not owning a car.
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