The End of Road Rage
This morning, driving to drop off my son at daycare, I saw a site that I see almost daily. In heavy traffic, a car quickly sped up in the left lane, it tailgated the car in front of it, honked, and the car in front tapped on the brakes. There wasn’t anywhere for the front car to go. The next car in front was less than a second following distance. I didn’t focus long enough to see how the drama unfolded but a few moments later we were all slumping along in slow traffic.
When I am part thrust in the middle of this drama, I remind myself that we are at the tail end of this era of humanity. In the grand scheme, road rage will be a weird blip in our transcendence. Autonomous vehicles are going to be making their sweep by the end of the decade and the difference between having autonomous driving and not is going to be so stark that it would make no sense not to use it. Yes, I know I sound optimistic, but the technology is deceptively growing.
What will happen to road rage when vehicles drive nicely and safely?
We might think that there will need to be some other outlet for aggravation in life — that we need some “violent passion surrogate” like in the book 1984 to release our violent nature some how. However, I don’t think that’s the case. We are driven towards aggravation by the weird situation that is driving, especially during rush hour.
With autonomous vehicles, the ability to relieve congestion through coordination will be much more likely. We will also not need to focus and devote energy to constant vigilance. This will likely lead to much kinder societies.
