Bye Bye Car

2014, Technology  -   16 Comments
8.02
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Ratings: 8.02/10 from 42 users.

America's love for the automobile is waning. Younger generations are no longer forming attachments to traditional cars. The auto industry is beginning to recognize this trend, and their executives are desperate to find outside-the-box solutions in order to remain viable. Bye Bye Car travels throughout the United States and the Netherlands to investigate the root causes behind this declining interest, and the possibilities for the reinvention of transportation.

Cars don't offer the status or confidence they once did for young people. In large part, other technologies like smart phones have assumed that role. The need for car ownership has been replaced by public transportation use and ride sharing services like Uber. Conscientious consumers may view this as a way of limiting their environmental footprint, but most simply find it a more economical and practical decision that better fits their way of life. No more traffic, no more unnecessary expenses, and no more parking frustrations.

How do car companies plan to compete? Their initial steps are beginning to emerge in the marketplace. Automotive research centers are moving from the car capital of Detroit to Silicon Valley. Like so many other firmly established products that have struggled to stay relevant with changing times, cars are becoming digitized. Today, new technologies allow your car to communicate through your cell phone, and for upgrades to be implemented remotely through a Wi-Fi connection. Meanwhile, electric cars are becoming cleaner and more efficient, and apps are growing more clever in opening up a wealth of additional options.

The film also explores the most advanced form of modern transportation: the autonomous vehicle. Thanks to the efforts of companies like Google, we are entering the age of the self-driving car. Researchers claim this technology could provide unparalleled convenience and safety, but others worry about the potentially negative implications. Can artificial intelligence really be trusted as a stand-in for basic human instinct?

Bye Bye Car illustrates the age-old contest between the inevitability of change and those who are resistant to it. One way or another, mobility is evolving, and society as a whole will either adapt or be left behind.

Directed by: Martijn Kieft

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16 Comments / User Reviews

  1. Bryan

    Yes , miss the simpleness of the pre 90's car's and bikes .... my car's key ...broke [electronically]... $400. and a new BCM needed now and still no go on a perfectly good mechanical wise car GM H au. gonna get a older classic next, but will the Government ban them soon /have anyway?

  2. john smith

    Not surprising when almost all young people are addicted to staring at phone screens and nothing much else.

  3. john smith

    Follow what they do in the Netherlands re bike lanes.They have 50 years experience.!

  4. john smith

    Not surprising when manufactures provide such boring cars in the first place these days, or is it that people have become boring and want different things in their lives these days? The sense of fun and being outgoing is waning due most likely to technology.

  5. DustUp

    Still chuckling @Glen's comment, hit it head on.

    Actually will be glad to exchange a car for a personal transport which can go from point A to B similar to Dick Tracy crutch bucket ...or a drone ...or a crow --without all the flapping of wings and cawing. Those object avoidance functions in some of the new cars would be mighty handy in 3-D if the friendly skies get filled with personal transporters. It is all possible but for some reason clunky oil, clattery car, the bratty tire companies, and the banksters who own them have decided you need to spend your money on the ground vehicles until you decide to stop.

    The assassins of the future will be hackers who can cause your vehicle of whatever type, to crash for cash. After enough of those there will be a booming market for old tech. Wish I still had mine.

    @Fico (the marxist?): If I develop something that would make life better for the poor but they cannot afford it, since they are poor, it then seems the opposite to what you stated is also true, technology that benefits the poor, benefits no one. Unless of course you are a marxist thief who justifies stealing from everyone to buy marxist votes by giving them such technology.

    Could it be that developing such technology for the rich or middle class could provide a job to a poor person, enabling them to be unpoor?

    Go visit a place that is still controlled by marxists, where everyone works for the state, no one is happy, and things aren't maintained because they get paid anyway ...until the money runs out.

  6. etr

    The spoiled brat does not need a car because her classes are right next to her house.

  7. DustUp

    @Lori & @Gunther have nailed it. Cars represent the freedom to go where and when you want. That will never become unpopular. The whole of the population is NOT festered into big cities so dense like NY that owning a car is so much of a burden compared to alternatives.

    Mass transportation becomes unpopular as soon as a terrorist strikes aboard one of those or they are unpleasant or unsafe as @LaMamaSims describes. Predators naturally gravitate to where they have abundant opportunity. You typically don't see seagulls, osprey, sharks roaming the desert.

    Ask drivers what they think of bike lanes when they take out a car lane to put one in. At the same time when I was in a biking phase, I tried them. Very unsafe when mixed with traffic. Lots of accidents because the nimrods who put them in would split the difference between traffic going straight ahead and turning right at a stop light. Meaning the cars would have to cross over the bike lane to turn right. The city planners who were bike riders wanting a better advantage put their lane so they could go either straight or right in the easiest way. They caused a number of those they thought they were helping to die.

    Also having ridden on bike lanes separate but close enough to freeway traffic and city traffic. You get the pleasure of sucking up MANY times more exhaust fumes than you would riding in a car because you are breathing harder. The heavier nastier stuff settles into where you are. After doing that enough times I decided that the health benefits of the exercise wasn't worth the added pollution uptake.

    Some think that would all be solved via electric cars. Only if the electric motor in those cars are totally enclosed, otherwise the coils of the motor would be ionizing the air around them, generating OZONE. I don't know if Tesla's motors are totally enclosed or not. Nor of other manufacturers. Thankfully home refrigerator's electric motor driven refrigerant pumps are.

    The title and description seem to be wishful thinking, promoting an agenda rather than dealing with reality. People are much easier to control when their only means of transport is mass transport.

  8. Daniel

    Here in Charlottetown PEI cars are really comman. Not to mention during the winter when we have over 500CM of snow fall people park on the sides of the roads making it impossible for plows to get through. I bike everywhere and it's hard trying not to get run over. Society needs go to back to where you couldn't use your phones in the car etc. Im 17 years old and saying that I hate how modern cars are made. It pisses me off.

  9. LaMamaSims

    I really wish public transportation and bike lanes were popular everywhere. Here in Moore, Oklahoma if you ride your bike on the street, you'll get run over. People get run over here a lot (hit and runs) just walking. It would be nice to walk/bike to the grocery store...rather than having to load up the kids, drive a couple of miles, load them back up, and then drive a couple of miles back. The buses around here are crap. Takes 4-5 hrs just to get 3 miles one way. Then you can't get back because the buses stop at 5 pm. Not to mention a lot of homeless and people that were just released from jail ride it. Since the bus "main spot" is located right across the street from a prison and in downtown where the homeless are located (so it's not very safe). Multiple time I would ride...(if I needed to get somewhere but had a car ride back) would see people just out of jail/prison harassing people for sex and money. The homeless...I know it isn't their fault but would get on stinking (making bus rides very uncomfortable). There are a lot of improvements needed here before we could live without cars. Especially since everything is so far apart. The closest grocery store to me is a 1 hr walk (one way). With 90+ degree weather here...my kids would not be happy nor would I (biking would be 15 mins, one way...but we have no bike lanes). It sucks I can't go without a car but I can't afford to replace my gas car with an electric/solar one.

  10. The Jazz Mann

    As long as you can 'Put a Tiger in the Tank' and 'get a little pussy in the back seat', the traditional car will last forever!!

  11. Fico

    So little focus on mass transportation… TESLA and the rest are so smart for the individual but not for the masses. When technology benefits the wealthy benefits no one.

  12. said

    last time be the street hi favorit way to descover all timing to enjoy with it ..But now me and all be in the enveronment the globe to untherstand all how be with it in his live to fill to the earth his skin as will be to like it in his live ..! The thec be the best way to see with it his and all composents to stay with the nice brin education and earn live to be one for two too save your opinion to the positive mark with any mention the level steep live to integrated if well than all you are to give the intention to the system comumauties to stay with as us you stay only safe with all are all be..!
    TecH +++ now in his hind next day be in your hind with any skin you can used it in your live, be with this fine to earn the live and to return to earn the earth with as his be tommorro fine with best than your old age.Integrated in the globe give the eyes the way to keep your self with all possed it the tools Technologic

  13. Glen

    Cars today need to be part of your smart phone,,bluetooth WIFI SMS GPS all the things you need to distract the driver and have a head on,,

  14. Gunther

    Maybe if wages were not so low and the price of cars were not so high, it would be easier to buy a car plus cars are getting so complex to maintain and repair. Many cities used to have excellent public transportation systems; however, the oil, rubber, and auto industries conspire to get rid of them. Also they killed the electric car as well.

  15. Ruth Robbins

    where can i purchase these documentaries?

  16. Lori

    As far as I have seen the younger generation still loves cars and they are not decreasing there are more on the road then ever.