I didn't enjoy driving until I got an elecrtic car, a Fiat 500e. That was enough fun for me to blow a hugely unnecessary amount of cash on a fun ICE car, a BMW m235i. I enjoy every day I spend in it, but I doubt I'll ever buy another gas car, as this one will bridge me to the future. I may take it to the track if I ever find the time and the right people, but it's unnecessary.
Gas cars can be fun, but if you look at what's actually sold, nearly none of them are fun. Those who love driving will continue to be a small minority, just as they are now.
Edit: I recently had the chance to drive the autobahn, and the most fun car I could get was a BMW 420d. It wasn't nearly as enjoyable as the skiing that it brought me to. So maybe I'm not that big of a driving fan after all.
Fake engine noise is a thing. Ford now puts it in their trucks.[1] A DSP synthesizes V8 engine sounds, which are played through the audio system. Here's how to disable it.[2] (This is for engine noise inside the cabin, not for pedestrians. Outside noise generators may be required for very quiet cars, but they will shut down around 35MPH.)
Modern engines just are not that noisy. People need to get over this. They got over sudsy laundry detergents. In the 1960s, it was a selling point for detergents that they generated lots of foam. This was a holdover from the soap era. Laundry detergents don't need foam to work, but people expected them. And customers wanted long-lasting foam, which resulted in sudsing agents which would survive all the way through the sewerage disposal plant and into lakes and rivers. That resulted in EPA regulations which ended the suds wars. Now, nobody wants suds from laundry detergents.
Virtually everyone I know in tech loves cars. Most fellow sysadmins I know still insist on manual transmission cars, in fact. Most of my fellow car club members and performance driving instructors/enthusiasts are techies.
I plan to go straight from manual transmissions to electrics; I don't see why I'd ever buy an automatic. I don't see electrics taking away from the fun, at least not necessarily. I've driven lots of fun electric cars. My last purchase wasn't electric-suitable (wanted AWD, range, etc). But my next one will be.
I've always worked in west coast tech hubs, but never "in the city", where all the car-hating hipsters live.
I don't think you are alone. It seems most people on HN live in hub cities and don't, understandably so, like the commute in the cities they live in. So this is a means to remove that pain point. It should also drastically lower accident rates which seems to not get as much attention. If you have a self driving car who should pay for the liability insurance and if it passes enough safety tests shouldn't the premium be much lower??
That being said I absolutely love the idea of self driving cars for my aging parents!
You are misunderstanding the situation here. I personally love something like a nice road trip, prefer manual transmissions, and whatnot. I just hate commuting everyday by car. It's completely inefficient and has negative impacts on health. Are you suggesting you enjoy driving in traffic as well?
California is home to some of the best driving roads in the world. And there are plenty of great ones in the Bay Area. Most of us don't commute on them, but they're not far away.
Sure so go rent a really nice car and drive them once a year. There are only so many people who's hobby is actually driving that they would do it over 1/3rd of the weekends in a year. If you live in say the bay and never drive except to go hit these great roads then no reason to actually own.
Or buy a motorcycle. Small, actually much more fun to drive.
Gas cars can be fun, but if you look at what's actually sold, nearly none of them are fun. Those who love driving will continue to be a small minority, just as they are now.
Edit: I recently had the chance to drive the autobahn, and the most fun car I could get was a BMW 420d. It wasn't nearly as enjoyable as the skiing that it brought me to. So maybe I'm not that big of a driving fan after all.