I don’t know which is more difficult for me to believe: That humans will be on Mars within my lifetime… or that cars will drive themselves. Apparently, both of those things are going to happen and I’m fine with that. “Our republic of drivers is poised to become a nation of passengers,” writes Robert Moor in New York Magazine. Mr. Moor provides a most thoughtful look at where we’ve been and where we’re headed. A few excerpts:

Will middle-aged men still splurge on outlandishly fast (or, at least, fast-looking) self-driving vehicles? Will young men still buy cheap ones and then blow their paychecks tricking them out? If we are no longer forced to steer our way through a traffic jam, will it become less existentially frustrating, or more? What will become of the cinematic car chase? What about the hackneyed country song where driving is a metaphor for life? Will race-car drivers one day seem as remotely seraphic to us as stunt pilots? Will we all one day assume the entitled air of the habitually chauffeured?

Many readers currently blanch at the news that the roads will one day be filled with cars hurtling brainlessly along at high speed. But those people fail to realize one thing: They already are.

Driving correlates with obesity rates, which, separate studies have shown, correlate with poverty rates. Heavy street traffic lowers real-estate values, and the people who live on those streets tend to spend less time outside and have worse relationships with neighbors. Traffic accidents are the leading cause of death worldwide for people ages 15 to 29. Emissions have a disproportionate effect on the health of communities of color, and nearly 90 percent of air-pollution deaths occur in poorer countries. A quarter of America’s greenhouse gases are released by our transportation, imposing a future climate cost that will be paid mostly by the nation’s, and the world’s, least fortunate. Meanwhile, 80 percent of car capacity goes unused, which means that most cars on the road, which can seat at least five people, carry only one.

For those of us who see driving as a kind of imprisonment — which, spatially speaking, it quite literally is — an extra hour to work or play (or eat, or read, or meditate, or fix our hair and do our makeup) will be cherished. But for those who see driving as a physical expression of freedom — which, spatially speaking, it also quite literally is — the end of driving will feel like confinement.

YouTube is going to need a thousand more servers for all the “Look, ma! No hands!” videos once self-driving vehicles become a reality. By some estimates, there will be 10 million self-driving cars by 2020. Shit, if it’s only _half_ that many.

You know the first thing a new owner is gonna do is record video while the car drives itself down the road. People will be eating and drinking (and fucking? Porn.hub gonna need more servers, too).

I’ve seen some amazing technology come along in my 68 years (moon landings, internet, Roombas) but none seem quite as impossible as self-driving cars. If these actually happen, the timing is almost perfect for me. With any luck at all, this tech will be ho-hum by the time I need it.

I am having a little trouble imagining how these vehicles will manage our steep hill when it’s covered in snow and ice but some really smart women and men (with slide rules have thought of that)

As for those “Look, ma!” videos… they’ll get boring soon enough and disappear, replaced by The Next Big Thing.

Shortly before noon I was traveling west on Highway 50 (divided four lane), going about 50 miles per hour. My lane appeared to be free of snow but had patches of black ice (which I guess I always thought of as some mythical substance). There were no cars close to me and I wasn’t changing lanes.

With no warning or sense I was losing control, my Toyota 4Runner seemed to move sideways, off the highway to the right, almost immediately I struck a metal signpost head on. Fortunately some brilliant engineer had designed these posts with hinges so it broke away with just enough impact to deploy the airbags. A good trick for a 17 year old vehicle (thank you, Toyota). A ravine full of scraggly small trees brought the vehicle to a stop.

Called 911 and within minutes local and county folks were on the scene and a bit later the wrecker pulled the 4Runner out. I walked away with a bloody nose from the airbags (yes, I was wearing seatbelt and shoulder harness) and some bumps and scrapes.

I can’t think of much I could have done to avoid this, other than drive a lot slower than 50 mph. My first accident in 50 years of driving and I was lucky. Could have hit another car or something less movable.