We're facing car apocalypse as a nation.
Apparently Gen-Z not interested in driving.
Getting their driver's license as of right now at much lower rates than previous
generations.
Back in 1997 which was not that long ago, 43% of 16-year-olds,
62% of 17-year-olds had driver's licenses.
By 2020, those numbers had fallen nearly in half to 25% and 45%.
And look when you interview them, as in this particular case, the Washington post
did, they give a lot of different reasons for why they're not interested in it.
Some say it's too expensive, some say that they can easily use e-scooters or
get picked up in a lift or an Uber or something like that.
Some say that they have too much anxiety about driving, and I understand it.
Drivers in LA are absolutely crazy.
You're taking your life in your hands being out there.
But, the question remains, is this gonna be a durable thing, or
is this just sort of delaying it?
Will they eventually start to get a car?
Well, there is some historic reason to believe that that is not necessarily
what's gonna happen, because while they get their driver's license at a much lower
level than like a generation ago,
that generation also got their license a little bit less than the previous one.
It is continue to increase, those drivers by the way, did start getting cars,
they did start driving, but they still drive about eight percent less on average
a day than the generation that came before them.
So if you project that forward, in a few generations, will we be driving at all?
And so I've brought on not only a father who might have to face this in like six,
seven, eight years, but also a lover of the great American automobile,
Jayar Jackson, what do you make of this?
>> I could see it happening, and
I didn't actually know that the trend was even really going that way.
We're in a city where driving is damn near absolutely necessary.
And you can get around obviously, you got the lifts and the scooters and
public transit, which is getting better as well.
But then it's just it takes longer and we're on a pace of getting things done,
finishing and getting there, hurrying it up and all that stuff,
but when the pandemic hit, I think that was another huge hit to this whole thing
as well as technological advances.
So the pandemic hitting, people don't leave the house as much just because they
kinda got used to being at home.
We see all these stories about delivery services and people not really going
to the grocery store as much, or even the drive up pick up things.
It's just less movement, less need to drive and
operate these type of things to get things actually done.
And also the rising costs of cars, and fueling them, and
then as I mentioned technologically, these cars are starting to drive themselves even
though they are running into folks and other cars and spinning off of freeways.
Even though that's happening currently, they're gonna continue to work on it and
perfect and things gonna get better and we're gonna get to the point,
I think since we're seeing this trend, people just won't even need licenses.
It's just getting in your car and letting it go.
It's like an autonomous vehicle, and who needs to learn how to drive it.
This contraption you mean?
You don't have to, you just jump in and let it go.
I think we're going that direction, but
I'm gonna be one of the old men that holds onto it.
But actually,
last thought here, at least there'll be fewer idiotic Prius drivers on the road.
I'll be happy to see that.
>> In my experience, the people who are driving the wrong way on
the street are not Prius- >> They are, I'm sorry,
in the new Prius driver is the Tesla driver.
They drive just like Prius drivers, some of them,
it's more 50, 50 with the Tesla guys.
>> Yeah, well, I'm actually surprised by what you had to say.
I thought you'd be more defensive and
be like, we'll never give up our steering wheels.
>> I wanna see reality.
>> Okay >> I see where this is going.
>> That's good, that's good.
Yeah, I find it to be fascinating.
Look, I think I like having the ability to drive.
I also love the idea of not having to.
I think LA is building up their public transit, it's not good enough.
But I think a lot of areas have been investing in this again,
not nearly enough.
But, interestingly, if we bring up this graphic seven,
there's a chart of average number of miles driven a year by the average American.
It reached its peak back in 2004, and
obviously it dipped quite a bit during the pandemic.
But it's basically plateaued for close to two decades now.
And I think that's a pretty good thing.
We shouldn't be driving nearly as much.
It's expensive, it's damaging, people die in these car accidents.
Maybe there are worse things.
And if this continues, and more and more people don't drive or
at least they're replaced by autonomous vehicles that are far safer, maybe I can
finally feel safe riding a motorcycle again because you people are crazy
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