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Nearly One-third of Consumers Would Give Up Their Car Before Their Smartphone (computerworld.com)
Lucas123 writes: A survey of 1,200 general consumers in four major countries by global tech design firm Frog found that 30% of respondents would give up their car before their smartphone. The online survey, which included the U.S., China, Denmark, and Germany, found that 37% of car owners would like to give up their car outright or felt they could get by without it by using an alternative form of transportation. "I think the people of my generation saw driving a vehicle as a rite of passage to adulthood. That was your freedom. I think the generation now views going from point A to point B as just occupying time that they could be doing something else," said Andrew Poliak of QNX Software Systems. At the same time, another survey revealed that even engineers continue to be wary of fully autonomous vehicles, including their vulnerability to hacks and exploits. The survey of IEEE members found they are not comfortable having autonomous vehicles pick up/drop off their children.
Smartphones are severely underpriced...
...they can get a ride just with their smartphone.
Plus they can always bum a ride off their friends (oh, lets be honest, more likely their parents - more and more 18+ live with their parents due to insane rents and general inflation combined with a poor job market).
Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
Driving is not only wasting time, but squandering money. If you live in a area well served with affordable public transportation, you save thousands by the year. And actually is one less shackle enslaving you. If you can afford to at least go without a car until you have children, you will save thousands. Depending on the country, the kind of car you drive, the downpayment, the maintenance and the depreciation, the taxes, a car might translate very well into an expense of 300-1,000 Euros per month.
Id ditch the phone, the car is my freedom plus I have UHF and VHF radio in the car for communication. Unlike phones you can use a radio while you drive where I am (Australia).
I can work quite happily using public transport and good ol' fashioned leg-power. I can probably telework and wouldn't need a car in the first place.
Not having a phone would be quite catastrophic. The unconnected world of yesteryear is deprecated, all of the old methods no longer function, and you can't really achieve much without a cellphone. For the most part it would be exceedingly difficult to even get a job without a cellphone. An employer looking at a candidate with no phone is inconvenient to them so they'll just skip that one.
Although I would say without a car you won't get laid, but sex isn't everything y'know...
While we're on the subject of unrealistic counterfactuals... If each American had to choose between keeping their cellphone or their gun, how many would choose which?
I think it would be interesting to see the breakdown of survey results by country and region. If I live in the New York City area, I could see potentially going without a car due to viable alternative transportation options. If I live in Silicon Valley and already drive a car to work, it would be completely unacceptable to not have a car, as that would increase weekly travel times by 10-15 hours, i.e., an order of magnitude more travel time and several orders of magnitude more frustration. I imagine that Denmark and Germany and probably even China skew the numbers toward the New York City type of response.
It would probably also be interesting to see the breakdown by age. I'm older in age and always choose to use a larger screen whenever possible. It would slightly bother me to give up my smartphone, but it would be unacceptable to me to lose my PC. The viewing and GUI interaction experience with a PC is way better and having to use a smartphone as my sole access to the web would make me go crazy.
Fuck you, I'm a customer not a consumer. And no shit, its called public transit and living somewhere walkable.
another survey revealed that even engineers continue to be wary of fully autonomous vehicles
That statement makes it look like it is almost a surprise.
Most engineers that I know are more concerned with the problems that can arise with fully autonomous vehicles than Joe sixpack, simply because they have at least some idea of how it works.
In an uncontrolled environment, there will be something that you did not plan for, and it is just a matter of time before there the shit hits the fan.
For Joe sixpack, a computer is a magic box. They don't know how it works, and they don't care. Until something goes wrong.
Death has been proven to be 99% fatal in lab rats.
felt they could get by without it by using an alternative form of transportation
So they'd go nowhere? Because walking is one of the alternative forms of transportation.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
The survey of IEEE members found they are not comfortable having autonomous vehicles pick up/drop off their children.
Would they be happier having them picked up and dropped of by a Taxi driver, who could well be a Muslim and think that child rape of infidels is a righteous act?
Sounds like something city folk would say.
I want to post on slasdot about the idea Of giving up personal vehicles. Though please understand that self driving cars will be hacked to kill everyone. Wtf.
Got neither. Modern life is slaving away for things you don't need but desperately want because they say so on TV. Which I don't have.
How do people imagine humans lived 50 years ago?
until you have children
Talk about squandering money and being shackled.
Almost a third of consumers are either under 17 or over 65 and don't have to drive themselves to work
Why is it such a surprise that they won't give up the thing that helps take it away.
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
the people that answered yes probably have never been stuck without a car as an adult. If you don't have a car in the US and don't live in the middle of a major city with buses, your hosed.
that SAY they'd give up their car before their smartphone...... are the same fucking people clogging the interstates during rush hour driving to and from work *by themselves* --- and often endangering others by using their fucking phones while driving.
TA is one of those gee-whiz ain't the world chaingin' golly gee wow. I think this article is also a great authoritarian training exercise to help condition people to the thought of centrally imposed austerity measures. Take two things most people use, each of which they carry a range of opinion from indispensable to frivolous --- depending on their own unique circumstances --- but of course!
Combine these people together in a bowl, and add a dash of confiscation trauma, and stir. Confiscation trauma is when someone wants to explore how people feel about specific things, but they feel that a good way to get people to 'open up' about their true feelings is to introduce the idea that one of them might be involuntarily (or forcibly) taken away.
It can be as subtle as a choice of headline, where One third of people would opt for smartphone over car becomes Would Give Up Their Car Before Their Smartphone.
To 'opt for' implies you may have one (or neither) and you are not in any position of adversity, simply evaluating them. To 'give up' changes the flavor completely. Now people are imagining unwelcome external forces influencing them. Things are being taken away. Some may imagine financial difficulties, others become outright paranoid. Both camps, have merit these days as take-home pay has stagnated and as special interest groups push their agendas through Congress. But an integral part of the game is that you imagine some adversary that is forcing you to make a choice.
Now the rants and counter-rants begin, and the issue clouds because some of the people who seems to be favoring smartphones are actually just saying that their own lifestyle does not include driving. Today. At this moment. Some who argue in favor of cars are actually feeling threatened because --- well, let me cut to the quick here --- cars use evil fossil fuel and folks who consider automobile ownership and the personal freedom they provide to be a modern rite of passage, feel they are feeling 'encroached' by metropolitan and suburban attitudes, and it is not difficult to imagine some future where even rural people who need their own transportation are impacted by these attitudes.
So because the headline has tapped into this Confiscation Anxiety, this discussion becomes inflamed by people stating the obvious in a way that is assertive enough to come off as threatening (if their views were politically persuasive). And there are rebuttals just as inflamed TA does not help resolve this or even seed the aruments, really. It's just about suburbia and In the end it's just a puff-piece exploring attitudes about driverless cars and how people feel about them.
The way I see it, sooner or later we will all be slapped against the wall by the economy. If by some miracle it could be resolved by making this silly either-or choice... what will be experienced by must-have-cars-fuck-the-smartphones people like me would be an unwelcome choice:
Someone is broke, and they're going to need a ride for the tenth time.
1. Do I give you a ride?
2. Do I give you $20 so you can use your fancy smartphone to call Uber?
3. Do I suggest that you should find a new friend.
See! I can play this austerity flame game too! ;-)
<blink>down the rabbit hole</blink>
Or "people", as they are preferably known. If you want to sound less like a soulless corporate drone and more like a human.
Indeed that's even what TFA calls them.
These are the same 1/3 of people that cant put their phone down, even in the middle of a conversation with someone else, a movie, or while they're driving. These people SHOULD only be allowed to have a smartphone. I'd keep my old phone, nice car, and nice PC any day.
http://i.cubeupload.com/T6cyLu.png
So, to be honest, there are a diminishingly small number of humans I would entrust to transport my small child. That's mainly because of the need to care for the child and the possible contingencies which occur when dealing with a child who is not able to negotiate all typical every day tasks, not necessarily the safety of the ride.
Would I put my 4 or 5 year old in an autonomous vehicle? No.
Would I accompany my 4 or 5 year old in an autonomous vehicle? Sure.
Riding in an autonomous vehicle is, imho, akin to living without a firearm. There are, no doubt, edge cases where owning a fire arm might result in an increased survivability, but the dangers associated with them outweigh (or the necessary safety measures cancel out) the use cases.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
About 30%.
Driving a vehicle and owning a car are not the same thing.
I'm from the Netherlands. We use bicycles. The average Dutch person bikes 1018km a year.
Yes, that includes the elderly, infirm and very young. My grandpa used his bike until he was 91.
RogerWilco the Adventurous Janitor
Jokes on them, after living in Europe for an extended amount of time I can safely say that the American leftard romanticization of European public transportation and mobile phone service is complete crap. Buses here suck just as much as you'd expect in any major American city and cell coverage is even worse (at least it is cheap)! There is no way in hell I'd take a bus into work every day and for the first time ever I miss Verizon.
Not to mention, owning a car and being able to take care of it without a mechanic makes ownership astoundingly cheap. You don't take your computer to Geeksquad learn to fix it yourself and reap the benefits.
If riding public transportation every day isn't an impetus for one to improve his life standing, nothing is. It sounds like there are lots of people willing to lower their standard of living. Good for them, makes roadways less congested for me.
Considering Smartphones are a privacy nightmare, and cars are insecure, it means they are ready to give up their insecurity before they surrender their lack of privacy. It makes sense.
I see lots of people reading books or working on laptops.
That might be because they bought their laptops prior to the end of 2012 when manufacturers discontinued small laptops. When I ride the bus, I carry a Dell Inspiron 1012, a 10.1" Linux laptop, which I use for hobby coding projects. But I have had it for over five years and wonder what I'll be able to replace it with once it ends up breaking. I'd imagine that full-size laptops are "mug me" magnets.
That's what taxi and car-hire firms are for.
If someone doesn't have his licence yet, what car should he use for the tens of hours of supervised driving practice that many jurisdictions require before he becomes eligible for the services of "car-hire firms"?
At least most cars can't be used to spy on you (yet)...
At least until Progressive Casualty's patents on the "Snapshot" OBD-II logger expire.
Does zero service at night, on Saturday evenings, on Sundays, or on major holidays (source: fwcitilink.com) count as "well served"? During April through October, I work around this on a bicycle, but mornings above 0C/32F are ending soon.
Speaking of saving money, I've come out with the best commuting idea yet.
Catapults!
Talk about saving time, and money! And don't worry about safety -- our parachutes are the best available!
I don't care about the poll results, but I think I like the question. It's pretty unusual on a given day to not see someone driving strangely-slowly with lack of awareness about those things we call "lanes." Even before you pass 'em and look over, you know what you're going to see.
Throw a XOR into their inventory-populator, and I think that'll be one less piece of stress in everyone's day. It doesn't even have to be a permanent choice; let people change their minds. Every morning: "phone xor car?"
Plenty of down-on-their-luck people living in their vehicles. Some have given up everything else they own, including their kids. A car represents the last hope for a chance for employment and futrure. California and other states have many such people.
Relatively few outdoors places in Colorado and California are accessible by public transportation. I couldnt afford a car while in school. But I could it gave great freedom.
I'm 68, and have lived much of my life without portable electronics and some of my life even without TV. In all time frames, a car was absolutely necessary to my happiness. Walking / bicycling (I've never tried horseback riding) are PITAs, and cars are where both utility and fun reside.
Custodial, fast food, retail. The monthly smartphone bill is probably as much as gasoline. Digital items could be the second highest expense after housing.
I've been living without a cell phone for coming up on two and a half years, not by choice but because of economical reasons. I also have only had access to a scooter in my city as my primary transportation which is highly limiting in Jacksonville, FL. Given the choice I would gladly choose a car since it would give me the ability to seek work on other sides of town that better fit my skill set. Living without smartphone service isn't impossible or hard, I use an old one without service and ride wifi with text apps and Skype. I don't see why on Earth anyone would give up the power to be able to go places for the ability to ignore others in public and take pictures of their food.
I bicycle to work and refuse to get a smart phone. So I've given up both.
Bicycling is a far less stressful way to get to work, and is a great way to unwind after work.
At work, I have a PC that is far more powerful than a phone. at home I have multiple PCs and tablets. I save about $600 a year on not having a smart phone and I only have to charge my phone about once a week (Compared with most of my co-workers that have to charge their phones about once or twice a day depending on what they're doing.)
Once you live in the countryside with a family, you need a car.
Anyone who looks at cars as a symbol of anything is stupid. They're tools.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
Would be curious to see a map breakdown of the respondants. Young people in urban areas? Or course they'll be less likely to get a car, irrespective of their views on smart phones. Driver's license passing rates for young urbanites have been falling for years now, anyway. So I'm not sure what this study was supposed to uncover, even ignoring the fact that phones and cars are completely different tools.
There's lots of alternative transportation options, not so many pay phones these days. Myself, there are a lot of things I value more highly than my car. Not sure I'd trade it for a phone, but I'm not one who fiddles with his phone all day. But, if I had to choose between my record collection and my car, I'd definitely be walking.
-- sudon't
Air-ride Equipped
I can't imagine it would take very long for the cost of having to get all your meals delivered, or having someone else drive you around, to exceed the cost of a car outside urban centers.
A surface pro runs the operating system of the devil
You mean it has drivers for FreeBSD?
Clear the road of distracted drivers texting and paying no attention the road? That would be a dream come true.
Could it be that the "one third" live in big cities and don't use a car much?
another survey revealed that even engineers continue to be wary of fully autonomous vehicles
... Particularly Engineers continue to be wary of fully autonomous vehicles.
Fixed that for them. 8-)
It's just that most people, today, have been conditioned to think freedom isn't terribly important. Being entertained is. What good is a mobile phone if you're limited by public transport predestinations or walking? Might as well just stay home and use a proper desktop/laptop.
Can it be that we reached the point in time where the smartphone may replace the drive to the office? It makes me wonder what the heck is wrong with me. I rather buy a new car than ever spend money on a smartphone, although the phone itself would be the least of my worries because it is the smallest expense. The freakishly expensive and grossly overpriced data plans are the real killer here. When I hear what others pay per month on their mobile plans it is more than I'd pay on a car loan payment. And even that is expensive because cars are more and more unaffordable. Even the cheap foreign cars now cost above 15k, many not so top of the line vehicles cost as much as my house. As far as the survey goes, the numbers are skewed. The US has except for a few regions basically no public transit. The US has except for metro regions rather shoddy taxi service. The majority of biking in the US is done for recreational purposes, mainly on designated walk/bike only paths (often abandoned rail lines which should be put back into service IMHO). Contrary to that, Germany has extensive public transit, regulated and reliable taxi service, and streets with sidewalks for walk/bike use except for restricted access roads (aka highways). I know many people in Germany who do quite well without a car, most of them do not even have a driver's license. Mushing these two groups together really waters down what the survey could have told us. The publishers should take a look at the numbers again and separate them out by country and regions within the country, probably add more responses to get a representative number. Even within the US there is a big difference, I can see doing quite well in Manhattan, NY without a car, in Piercefield, NY not so much.