As liveraboard sailor I don’t own a house a car or even a boat? Hopefully I’ll recitify the boat situation shortly? I tend to walk everywhere or use public transport, however recently when I flow into London Stansted airport I hired a car. The car was vitually brand new with only 5000 miles on the clock. It was a Peugeot 2008 a nice maroon burgandy colour.
I was rather nervous as I don’t drive much now after my neck injury which causes rotational difficulties with my head side to side movements.At certain road junctions I find it more difficult to see on coming traffic?
I drove firstly to Ipswich to look at Oyster Heritage 37 sailboat followed by drive to the Midlands to meet my ex wife, then on to Beaumaris on the Isle of Anglesea to look at a Rival 36
Oyster Heritage 37
Peugeot 2008
Robert Stephenson Britannia Bridge over the Menai Strait
I then drove onto Rhyl to visit my elderly mother who lives with my sister. Mum is in her 99 year. I took the car back to Stansted airport two weeks later. I couldn’t help thinking how technology has moved on since I leant to drive in 1970 in an Austin A40.
I was able to plug in my Iphone and it directly connected to the in car Satellite system. I could use apple maps for navigation and at the same time listen to apple/itune podcasts whilst driving along.
Austin A 40
Rhyl Harbour Bridge
The other day whilst walking I was thinking about the future of transport? How radically different it will be from today. I happen to come across a website hiring electrical cars called OnTo. These can be hired for one month or more.
During my walk what I’d envisioned is starting to actually happen in real time. We won’t need to own a car? You’ll have an app on your phone when you need a EV electric vehicle you’ll be charged for the duration of its loan?
EV’s will be parked in central location storage recharge maintenance facility. The car will self drive to your pick up point at home or work place. Once its taken you to your destination it will leave you and pick up its next passenger.
ICE internal combustion engine vehicles will be a thing of the past. No service garages, no petrol stations. Company EV providers will have all that technolgy in their centralised storage facilities. There isn’t the drive train parts in EV’s as there is with an ICE vehicle.
Silicon Valley high tech companies and electronic vehicle start ups will sweep away the old style vehicle ownership. Owning a car will be a thing of the past.
Shipping is in line for next electrical revolution like EV’s. last year when I was sailing in the Mediterrean one windless morning, a ship in the distance, had a grey/black haze surounding it, when the rest of the sky was a pristine blue.
I thought wow how dirty carbon emissions are? What’s worse is they’re being pumped directly into the atmosphere we breath. Crazy I thought!
Shipping will have to utilize technologies to move away from fossil fuels, such as hydrogen, wind power,hydrofoils to reduce drag. I came across a revolutionary vessel near Barcelona a few years ago called Energy Observer.
Creating hydrogen from seawater to be converted into electricity.
OceanBird
https://youtu.be/3psHz8aYBekhttps://youtu.be/N0D4jUEmTMQ‘I dont agree with everything in the above video? Why? I think car ownership will go down, not up, because we won’t need to own cars. Most cars sit outside peoples homes, offices, airport carparks, sitting there not being used and devaluing.
I also think population will peak soon and reduce significantly in size. As countries become more educated and more wealthy they have less children. I feel there will be population crash. which is a personal contrarian point of view. The future is what we create in and through our minds!