Unfortunately, I don’t think self-driving is going to come soon enough for our parents, at least not my parents. If my parents lose the ability to drive, it’ll be devastating for them, and I know it would drive my Dad nuts to have to rely on my Mom. My Mom is mostly blind in one eye since birth. She has only peripheral vision. She is well able to drive but does so very cautiously since she has very poor depth perception. H’s mother has already, thankfully, stopped driving. For years, she drove once a week to do her major shopping. She got in an accident in Manhattan which was her fault, though I am sympathetic since honestly merely being a passenger in Manhattan leaves me in a state of minor terror. In any case, she decided of her own accord to stop driving. Living in Manhattan, this is not very limiting and has virtually no effect on her life. So, it is my parents we have to worry about.
When I encounter someone driving erratically, I often look at them and see they’re on their cellphone. But as frequently, I see someone who is clearly very advanced in age. I think they should require people to take a driving test maybe every twenty years until you’re 70 and every five years thereafter. I would be willing to take a driving test every five years in the spirit of fairness if it resulted in driving tests for older folks as well. Even if you just made people take the written test and vision test periodically I think it would useful. In Washington state, there are no such requirements. Take the test at 16, and you’re done for life.
Self-driving, though, gives me great hope. Sometime all of us thirty-somethings will be facing slowing reflexes, deteriorating mental capacity, and loss of our senses. Heck, it’s happening already! No joke. It’s just the tip of the iceberg. Anyway, I figure we’ll need self-driving cars in about forty years. It seems possible they’ll be around by then. If not, I suppose it’ll be even more possible to rely on the internet for one’s basic needs. And there’s always Uber.
