>> I wonder if we will be able to get used to renting things when we need them only sometimes
I think there are several issues:
1. The renting process is quite involved, it's still expensive and the variety of cars is limited.
Something like Uber for renting cars with heavy marketing + some city regulation might make people consider owning a city car and renting a "specialized" vehicle for long trips or just renting both the city and the long range one.
2. There is a social aspect to this issue as small cars are seen as "cheap"/worse cars and for some reasons many people seem to like big off-road trucks even if they never go off-road and even if they are over their budget.
Like it or not the car you drive matters to many/most of the people just like the clothes you wear and the mobile phone you use.
I believe a "simple" and single solution to fix all these ills would be to be full self driving capabilities. That way we could hail the car we want when we want it perhaps directly from automakers or from a tech company such Apple/Amazon. I guess the "pride" being driven in a big truck would decrease as well so we would see less of them on the roads.
I think there are several issues:
1. The renting process is quite involved, it's still expensive and the variety of cars is limited.
Something like Uber for renting cars with heavy marketing + some city regulation might make people consider owning a city car and renting a "specialized" vehicle for long trips or just renting both the city and the long range one.
2. There is a social aspect to this issue as small cars are seen as "cheap"/worse cars and for some reasons many people seem to like big off-road trucks even if they never go off-road and even if they are over their budget.
Like it or not the car you drive matters to many/most of the people just like the clothes you wear and the mobile phone you use.
I believe a "simple" and single solution to fix all these ills would be to be full self driving capabilities. That way we could hail the car we want when we want it perhaps directly from automakers or from a tech company such Apple/Amazon. I guess the "pride" being driven in a big truck would decrease as well so we would see less of them on the roads.