What’s Lost When We Give Up Driving
The article explores the cultural and personal significance of driving as a rite of passage for American teens, questioning what might be lost as society moves toward self-driving cars. It discusses how the decline of manual driving reflects broader trends of increased safety consciousness and digital immersion among youth. The conversation emphasizes the value of embodied knowledge and physical engagement with the world, suggesting that driving's potential disappearance is part of a larger shift in how Americans experience adulthood and independence.
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new video loaded: What’s Lost When We Give Up DrivingtranscriptBacktranscriptWhat’s Lost When We Give Up DrivingWill self-driving cars mark the end of a rite of passage for teens? On “Interesting Times,” the columnist Ross Douthat asks the author Andrew Miller whether the decline of manual driving signifies a broader shift toward the “safety focus and screenification of American youth.”I like to drive. It was a pretty big deal to me, learning to drive in the middle of my teens. A kind of step into adulthood. And this is, you know, it is distinctively American in certain ways. We’re a big country where there’s lots of places where mass transit doesn’t work and driving has always made sense. It makes sense that we have this kind of culture. and this form of adult being in the world.
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at NYT — Opinion.
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