Monday, November 13, 2017

Bob Lutz: The Automotive Era Is Ending

Car culture is definitely changing, but can it change in a relatively short amount of time?

Bob Lutz thinks so.

As one of the top executives at General Motors, Lutz championed for the creation of the Pontiac GTO and G8, the return of the Camaro, and the introduction of the Cadillac SRX.

Lutz is a gearhead but also a cunning businessman who has a knack for seeing trends and predicting the future of cars.

In 2008, for instance, he said that the electrification of the automobile was inevitable. By 2010 he had successfully guided the Chevy Volt into existence, and today, the future of EVs is, indeed, inevitable.

Just wait ’till you hear what he’s saying now.

In an article published at Automotive News, Lutz wrote,

Now we are approaching the end of the line for the automobile because travel will be in standardized modules.

The end state will be the fully autonomous module with no capability for the driver to exercise command. You will call for it, it will arrive at your location, you’ll get in, input your destination and go to the freeway.

Even scarier, Lutz predicts that this will happen within 15 to 20 years and that people will have about five years of warning to get their cars off the road or “sell it for scrap.”

That’s not a very rosy outlook if you enjoy the thrill of driving or the pride of car ownership.

Frankly, though, it seems a little outrageous. There are 253 million cars in the United States, and it isn’t feasible to scrap them all in the next two decades. That’s not to mention the heavy financial investment folks have in their cars and the personal attachment Americans have made with them.

I don’t want to believe it, but maybe we shouldn’t bet against the great Bob Lutz.

Do you want a future of transportation modules, instead of cars, as former Vice Chairman of General Motors Bob Lutz has predicted?

-tgriffith

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Bob Lutz: The Automotive Era Is Ending posted first on http://www.cargurus.com/blog/

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