Bring on the robots

Yes, This Is Better

So I've been hearing about robot cars for nearly my entire career as a rideshare driver. Seven years of it's happening, your hustle is going away, what do you think about it, etc. And I've covered this before and at length (shorter: tragedy of the commons, filthy cars without human drivers exerting social pressure, generational unease)... but tonight, dear reader? I'm ready to be replaced.

Here's why.

1) The social skills of passengers are in free fall. When I started doing this, very few passengers would play audio on their phone without headphones; now, it's the majority. If they took a phone call, they'd apologize and try to cut it short. Now, they are on the phone for the entire trip... and I think I know why.

The reason, of course, is that they've had some past bad interaction with a driver, or think the driver is going to scam them in some way, either by taking the wrong route, canceling the ride on a multi-stop drive, or give them a bad rating. Maybe they had a driver hit on them. In any event, the safer play is to let the driver know that conversation isn't just unlikely, but actively discouraged. As if I couldn't get the hint, honestly.

2) An ever-dwindling percentage of passengers want the driver to speak, or to speak to the driver. I'm an outlier; I confirm the address, tell the passenger about water and hand sanitizer, and I'm generally done in five to ten seconds... and that's five to seconds too many for a growing percentage of passengers. Yes, seriously.

3) The overall deterioration of discourse in the country. I'm a small white guy with a clean hybrid, and any number of people seem to think they know my politics -- left or right or otherwise -- on sight. It gets tiresome to fight Culture War for low wages. Once the cars are driven by robots, we'll all get to talk to each other less, and that's what we really want, right?

Well, no. 

But I can't push the ocean back with a broom, no matter how many good talks I sometimes pull out of people.