In 1965, as part of the Rubber Soul album, the Beatles released a song called “Drive My Car” … with the famous lyrics “Baby you can drive my car”. Over the years, various artists have released cover versions of this song. However, given the current and forthcoming automotive advances, the song is ringing true today like never before – because “driving” a car is truly set to become child’s play.

There are two factors that are influencing this trend. Given the advances in technology, we are seeing cars becoming easier to drive. Secondly, we are moving towards driverless cars, which will also make a massive difference to the car of the future. There are many automotive features that will be redundant when our children learn to drive (if, in fact, they do)!

The good news is that future drivers will actually be better positioned to drive than their parents. Gaming is a huge part of the life of many children and they are learning skills that will prove handy when it comes to “driving” cars in future. As such, they will probably be better equipped to drive than their parents.

Cars will also become so much easier to drive. Remember the sleepless nights before going for your driving test – because we were all worried about parallel parking? Cameras and self-parking cars mean that those worries are a thing of the past – and this technology will evolve even further for our children.

Coupled with this is a situation whereby cars are evolving very rapidly. Our children won’t drive cars featuring combustion engines. They almost certainly won’t have to contend with manual gearboxes; automatic transmissions will be the order of the day.

Furthermore, drivers will become redundant. Our children will live in an era where self-driving cars become commonplace. This means all sorts of differences to cars. Steering wheels will not be required. Neither will conventional dashboards; because you won’t need the all of the information currently imparted by a dashboard. The interior of a car will be more like a lounge than a driver’s cabin; it will be more of a chill zone. Even tyres will become redundant – because the car of the future won’t be making contact with the ground; it will glide or hover like a magic carpet!

Ultimately, it’s quite possible that one major aspect of motoring could become redundant: the driver’s licence. Our children may not even need a licence to drive – because they won’t actually be driving. They also may not be purchasing a car – because all they will want is mobility, which won’t mean car ownership. One thing is certain: motoring, for our children, will be worlds apart from what we’re experiencing in 2018!