IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2020 - 79

so many (non-car- guy) people.
Through fifteen entertaining and
insightful chapters, he covers all the
basics one would expect of a sur-
vey: Ford and mass production,
Sloan and obsolescence, superhigh-
ways, foreign competition, safety
and environmental regulations,
energy crises, computerization, and
trucks and SUVs. He also tackles
some things one might not expect:
the CB-radio phenomenon of the
1970s, the lackluster cars of the
1980s and 1990s, the fact that kids
these days are not drawn to cars
the way their parents were, and the
decline of do-it-yourself repair. He
delves into the rhetoric of autono-
mous-vehicle boosters, too, as well
as the different ways a driverless
future might play out - perhaps
our roads and cars will work togeth-
er as a system, or perhaps each
car will navigate our extant infra-
structure on its own. Albert also
explores the technology of driver-
less mobility, and here he reveals
himself as something of a techno-
logical enthusiast, especially when
it comes to LIDAR, i.e., light detec-
tion and ranging, a descendant of
radar. But he is also something of a
Jeffersonian. He is willing to admit
that driverless technology is intrigu-
ing, but is nonetheless ready to ask
some difficult questions about its
history, and about how, why, and
where it may take us.
Three of Albert's broader conclu-
sions warrant note. First, today's
driverless push fits a well-estab-
lished pattern: it is but the latest in
a long line of technical fixes we've
devised to address the problems
inherent in mass car-use without
giving up on its core premise, indi-
vidual mobility. Second, the driv-
erless car could have debuted long
ago. GM ex-perimented with roadreading cars in the 1950s, the Fed-

JUNE 2020

much-needed dose of critical analy-
eral Highway Administration did the
sis to a subject that has far too long
same in 1960s and 1970s, and the
belonged to those who stand to
Department of Transportation (and
profit from it. We needed a thought-
the U.S. military) took up the cause
ful challenge to the boosters' utopi-
in the 1990s. Third, and most
an narratives of mobility without
important, in spite of the driverless
injury, pollution, or waste, and this
vehicle's place within the broader
history of automobility, a
decisive brea k does lie
ahead. Not only will the
driverless ex--perience differ
fundamentally, but many of
This book presents a challenge
today's most fervent boost-
ers also foresee an ownerto the driverless technologist's
less fu--ture. If they are right,
utopian narrative of individual
we won't own our own driv-
erless pods, but will rent
mobility without injury,
them on a fee -per- m ile
basis. And with this feeble
pollution, or waste.
whimper, our car culture
will evaporate.
Are We There Yet? has its faults.
is it. Yet even this book does not
It is far too quick to dismiss Brock
call that driverless future into ques-
Yates, whose escapades in the
tion. For Albert it's an inevitabil-
1970s dovetailed with the renegade
ity - one deserving of critique, but
CB culture in ways this book misses
an inevitability nonetheless.
and whose contempt for the bloat-
And that, for me, is what's so
ed cars of the 1960s and 1970s
sad about what lies ahead. As a
was ahead of its time in all the right
friend of mine likes to say, "life's
ways. It also makes too much of the
too short to drive a boring car."
tired argument that driving isn't an
More and more, though, I truly fear
exercise in freedom because of the
that life will seem too long when
laws and infrastructure which con-
boring cars with no controls are all
strain it. One needn't believe in the
there is.
libertarian fantasy of "pure free
There's that pang of sadness
will" on the roads to recognize that
again. Fortunately, in the here and
driving one's own car on one's own
now there's still an easy cure.
schedule is at least a tad more
Where are my keys?
"free" than traveling by bus or
Reviewer Information
rail. It also barely hints at one of
David N. Lucsko is Professor and
the chief reasons why a company
Chair of the Department of History at
like Google might be interested in
Auburn University. He is the author
a dr iverless future: motorists,
of The Business of Speed: The Hot
once "freed" from having to watch
Rod Industry in America, 1915-1990
the road, will then be "free" to
(2008) and Junkyards, Gearheads,
devote their full attention to their
and Rust: Salvaging the Automotive
handheld screens.
Past (2016). His email address is
Still, this book makes a vital
dnl0006@auburn.edu.
contribution. At once insightful,

accessible, and funny, it delivers a

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