Ahnii!
A man who spent two years letting cars drive him around has returned to horseback. He said the vehicles were too good at getting him places, which prevented him from developing the deep, intuitive road sense required to be a Real Traveler. 865 engineers on The Pragmatic Engineer immediately began arguing about whether this means cars are broken or the driver is.
The thread split into two camps.
Some insisted the problem is structural. A driving instructor wrote that cruise control is "incredibly dangerous" because it handles the easy parts too well. Without manually managing every micro-adjustment of the steering wheel, students never develop the instincts needed to navigate a four-way stop. One commenter compared it to watching the Tour de France and expecting your quads to get stronger.
Others said the problem is the rider, not the horse. A well-known automotive engineer pushed back. He argued that modern vehicles can automatically reroute around construction, detect hazards, and parallel park better than most humans. Going back to horses because you never learned to give the car proper instructions is, in his words, "romantic but deeply unserious."
The quiet consensus came from people in the middle. Most said they don't vibe-drive in the purest sense. They don't close their eyes and hope the car figures it out. They use the tools, stay alert, hands near the wheel, choosing the route and checking the mirrors. They never leave the saddle, whether it's leather or synthetic.
The debate wasn't really about whether cars work. It was about how much control you keep when you use them.
Baamaapii
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