What If All 7 Billion People Had a Car Tomorrow

Hmmm. There’s an electric massage chair inside your car so that your back doesn’t hurt, and a small exercise bike to get your legs in shape. You open the built-in mini fridge, take out a couple of meatballs, and heat them up in the built-in microwave. Bored?

There’s a TV with internet, and for later, a bio-toilet, installed in the back seat. Kind of cramped, but nice and cozy. You’re not a millionaire, just an ordinary person. Your car is the most average, like billions of others. All these amenities inside are crucial, but why?

You spend most of your life in your car. There are about 1.5 billion cars in the world, most of them passenger cars. The roads are already pretty packed, and it’s impossible to find parking at certain times of the day. But what if there were 7 times more cars?

Imagine that humanity just found a huge deposit of metals. Trillions of tons of iron, nickel, aluminum, bronze, silver, and lead. All over the world, their prices tumble. Metals replace ceramics, wood, and plastics. At the same time, automakers develop a fully integrated AI car assembly system. Smart robots use metal alloys to 3d print parts on the go. They can build a car in a matter of hours.

Pretty soon, you can buy a car cheaper than a new pair of sneakers. People buy several cars at once. Luxury car brands lose a lot of money, since all cars now are much higher quality. Oh boy. More and more traffic jams are popping up everywhere. People start to panic and shut down all new car production. But it’s too late.

Every single person on Earth already has a car. Now, to get to the nearest supermarket, you have to spend at least 90 minutes in traffic. You can’t walk either because the exhaust fumes are insane. A 10-minute walk around the block gives you a nasty cough. Inside a car though, you can crank up the air purification system and breathe deeply.

There are thousands of service stations that don’t just do repairs anymore, they also equip your interior to make your drive more convenient. You recently got a game console installed, why would you ever leave your car anymore? Your ears are always ringing. Even if you’re at home, trying to fall sleep, you can still hear cars honking outside. You’re so used to it; it actually sounds like silence.

You don’t remember the last time you drove faster than 20 mph. You’ve forgotten what speed is. Highways, byways, local streets, parking lots: every inch of road is filled with cars. So, you’re crawling to the supermarket. You look out the window and see your friend in the lane next to you. You have a chat, he shares some snacks with you, and you hand him a wireless controller, so you can play with each other on your new game console.

Traffic jams are bringing people together! You don’t really know anything about your friend, but you’ve met up almost every weekend on the way to the supermarket. You’ve even finished a few video games together over the past month, just in the car!

While playing your video game, you accidentally hit and scratch someone else’s car. But the driver doesn’t even turn around or say anything... All cars these days have minor damage. It’s impossible to avoid when everyone’s packed in so tight.

Insurance companies don’t even deal with scratches and bumps anymore! A few years ago a scratch on your new car would’ve ruined your whole day, but now, you don’t care. And roads are a lot less dangerous. What’s the worst that can happen when everyone’s doing 15 down the highway? Motorbikes are becoming really rare. It’s just not that much fun to ride along at a slower than snail’s pace. People make new motorbike clubs, and mostly ride out in the woods.

You finally arrive at the supermarket. Good thing there’s a 20-story parking building nearby. There’s also an underground lot. After shopping, you spend another hour getting home. If you live in an apartment, there’s one more step you got to go through. There’s a special vertical parking structure on every block. You drive in, get out, and the car gets lifted up into a sea of parked cars. But it’s expensive.

You’re trying to save up for a trip, so you try your luck parking on the street. When you finally find a spot, you realize you’re 5 miles [5 mi (8 km)] from home! You get out, take a look at the mountain of groceries you’ll have to carry, and decide to spend the night in your car. It’s got everything you need, except for a hot shower. There are cars parked everywhere... all with people inside. They’re spending the night, just like you!

You lie back and look up through the sunroof at the dull, gray sky, and realize that you haven’t seen the sun, crisp white clouds, or blue skies for a long time. The exhaust from all the cars forms a constant thick haze, you can’t see more than a block in any direction. Some are starting to say that we should abandon our cars, melt them down and store the scrap metal deep underground.

Exhaust fumes are a real problem for people: breathing, playing sports, playing outside...those are considered really dangerous these days! The worst part for you is that you haven’t heard a single bird sing for ages, even out in the suburbs.

Let’s say one day your car breaks down. Something’s wrong with the engine. It takes you a few hours to even get to the nearest garage! Now you need to wait for your turn! Millions of car repair companies have sprung up all over the world, but it’s not nearly enough to keep up with demand. The waiting list for a major car issue can be over a year!

That’s why you decided ages ago to buy mechanic textbooks online and watch instructional videos on YouTube for at least an hour on the weekends. Somehow, you manage to fix your busted engine! You share your success on Instagram and your friends are impressed. Maybe you could open your own YouTube channel, helping people fix their own cars!

The auto industry is developing and changing every month. The newest craze? You no longer have to go to the supermarket for food. Bus shops appear all over the city. You’re waiting in traffic and see a supermarket on wheels in the left lane. You hop out of your car, get on the bus, and buy everything you need, if you can squeeze through the cars to get there and back! Eh, if you don’t want to wiggle your way around all those cars, you can just jump from roof to roof. Nobody cares anymore.

A few weeks later, you start seeing hospitals on wheels, libraries, cafes, even gyms. Some clever truck owners retrofitted their vehicles into gyms on wheels! Someone installed a projector in their convertible and now shows movies on a tarp they set up on the SUV in front of them. But your favorite of these new services? Museums on wheels. Each museum is an extra-long retrofitted school bus!

The air problem eventually gets solved by electric vehicles. Soon everyone’s switched over, and you can finally breathe fresh air. It feels like honey in your lungs! The sky is finally turning blue. To relieve the crazy traffic, cities start building underground tunnels, and soon, traffic jams are... well, they’re still ridiculous!

Years pass. The structure of the human skeleton changes. People have been sitting in their cars so long that their spines have become weak. People need to exercise more! Some people go to extreme lengths, they rip the engine out of their car, and install a sort of pedal system. Now, to get anywhere, they need to pedal. A. Lot. Every year people try to make their cars more advanced. The problems with air quality and people’s health have been solved. The last big challenge? Getting rid of traffic jams permanently.

Scientists and engineers create a gravity engine that you can buy if you’re a millionaire. Basically, you can float your car to work!

Not every driver can afford it, but almost everyone can afford to install a powerful propeller on their car. Heli-car time! The roads get freer and way less congested but there’re serious new problems up there in the sky. Anyway, that’s another story.