Remember when you had to load film into your camera, take the photos, then take the film to CVS or a little film processing kiosk in a parking lot to get the film developed? You had to wait to see if your photos even turned out worth keeping. In 1998, Kodak had 170,000 employees and sold 85% of photo paper worldwide. Within just a few years, their business model disappeared and they went bankrupt.
What happened to Kodak will happen in a lot of industries in the next 10 years.
Think about Uber. It’s just a software tool, they don’t own any cars, yet it is now the biggest taxi company in the world. Airbnb is now the biggest hotel company in the world, although they don’t own any properties. And how about autonomous cars! In 2018 the first self-driving cars will appear for the public. In the near future, you will call a car with your phone, it will show up at your location and drive you to your destination. You will not need to park it, you only pay for the driven distance and can be productive while driving. Our kids will never get a driver’s license and never own a car.
Well, I for one, feel sorry for our youth if that is the case. Learning to drive and owning your first car is a rite of passage. I remember vividly going out to the Georgia State Patrol office and getting my learner’s permit when I was 15. Shortly thereafter I was at my dad’s office one afternoon and he decided (unwisely, as it turned out) to let ME drive us home. I proceeded to pull out onto Gloucester Street and right into the side of a passing car. To my dad’s credit, after the police came and the report was filed, he made me get back behind the wheel and drive home. You know the lesson: when you fall off the horse, get back on.
Like most kids, I made my mom take me to the Georgia State Patrol office ON my 16th birthday so I could get my REAL driver’s license. Having the officer riding in the car with me, putting me through the driving maneuvers was a little nerve-wracking, but not nearly as bad as when my older sister would yell at me every time I was practicing my driving with her in the car! The grand finale of passing your driver’s license test was the dreaded parallel parking test. Fortunately, I was successfully able to back my mom’s twenty-five foot-long 1974 Ford Country Squire station wagon between the two orange pylons without hitting them. Driver’s license, check!
Next thing was to get a car of my own! I was able to buy my first car, a 1970 Olds Cutlass convertible (with an 8-track player) for the princely sum of $1,200! I now had my OWN ride! That meant freedom! If future kids don’t have their own cars, how are they going to go cruising or hang out together in the parking lot, or whatever it is that teenagers do now? 39 years later I still feel that freedom of driving wherever I want to go. Last month I was in a rental car and it had the rearview camera on the dashboard so you could “see” behind you. I attempted to parallel park using the rear camera and failed three times in a row to back properly into the spot. On the fourth try, I turned my head back and looked where I was parking. Bingo! Pulled right in.
Yes, the Exponential Age is upon us. But at least at 55 years old, I can still go “parking!”
