Ezra Dyer: Thoughts on the State of Cars from the Year 2095
Here at Car und Driver, we prize our powers of prognostication even more than we adore our aptitude for alliteration. But even the most clairvoyant cyborgs among us couldn't have predicted how much cars would change over the past 140 years. Let alone that magazines would still exist.
Today, most younger people hold fractional ownership of a car, splitting the cost with as many as six other drivers. These vroommates, as they're called, make up an increasing share of the market. Flarers, the generation born after the solar storms of 2071, often can't afford a whole car and don't require one anyway, given the ubiquity of drone delivery services and the unexpected popularity of roller skates as a "last mile" transportation solution. Some companies are attempting to drive down prices with no-frills designs—extruded cars, inflatable cars, the IKEA En Skitbil flat-pack wagon—and a few of those cost less than $1,000,000, making them a viable option for budget shoppers with a high tolerance for petrochemical off-gassing.
As we near the next century, Saab has become the most prosperous car company on this planet since discovering trollennium on the site of its old headquarters.
Ezra Dyer
Senior Editor
Ezra Dyer is a Car and Driver senior editor and columnist. He's now based in North Carolina but still remembers how to turn right. He owns a 2009 GEM e4 and once drove 206 mph. Those facts are mutually exclusive.
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