We must also remember that the future will not only be autonomous but also electric. In countries like the United States and those comprising the European Union, among others, there are legislations that allow consumers to manually refuel their cars without requiring the help of another person.
In Argentina, on the other hand, the current legislation does not consider this action safe, so at every fuel pump in a service station, we find a worker ready to fill our fuel tanks.
Electricity is different. We use it every day, whether plugging and unplugging the charger of our cell phones, computers, a toaster, or any other device. I think no one would see the need to request the services of another human being to plug our cars into the power. It is true that if you mishandle electricity, it can kill you, but that is not why it is prohibited; rather, it is regulated with new technologies that make it safer. I think Neil deGrasse Tyson illustrated this well in a podcast with Joe Rogan, where he pointed out that this would be like when cars were invented, and people complained that they killed people because they didn’t know how to cross the street. Well, we created traffic lights and crosswalks to indicate where and when to cross the street, as well as various lanes to prevent cars from easily colliding with each other, and then airbags were added to make them safer. Just like with computers came viruses, the solution was never to ban new technology but to improve it with more technology, like antivirus programs.
But that’s not all, the idea is to break down the whole process. If cars are electric, then we can charge them right at home, in the garage, while we sleep. No more queues at the service station. Great. Even if we want to use Tesla’s own charging stations, we can also send our cars to charge there on their own while we are busy doing other things. And although the charging of these vehicles is slower, for now, than the process of filling a fuel tank, today Tesla’s fast charging stations allow a charge for more than 300 km of travel in 15 minutes. It is logical to think that in the future these charges will be faster and faster.
What the average reader of this book may not know is that in the United States, according to various studies[43], approximately 80% of cigarette purchases are made at service stations. If the American citizen stops visiting them regularly, due to the use or temporary rental of autonomous and electric vehicles, there is a possibility that the number of individuals who smoke regularly may decrease. On the one hand, they would have to add a new unnecessary stop to their routes, and if they do not do so, this would result in them being exposed to these products and their advertising less frequently.
Thus, on one hand, we can reduce traffic accidents and the deaths of smokers, extending the lives of certain individuals, but on the other hand, we leave service station workers without jobs, as well as the truck driver who delivers the fuel to the station, and even those currently employed in the exploration and exploitation of fossil fuels in the first place, as well as the employees of the tobacco companies. Viewed this way, it seems clear that we are on the path to reducing the number of available jobs.
Does the chain of unemployment end there? Of course not, the chain continues, but let’s briefly focus on the tobacco industry. Only a lobbyist would come out to defend the tobacco companies staunchly, but let’s not forget that they also provide jobs for thousands of people today. Moreover, let’s not forget that they also pay taxes that go into the state coffers and that money is then generally allocated to health programs. But how much actually goes to these programs?
The answer will depend on which country we analyze. On this occasion, we will analyze two countries, Argentina and the Czech Republic. The latter country recently increased[44] taxes on tobacco consumption, but even so, it is still far from the prices paid in other countries for a pack of 20 cigarettes, like Australia, France, or Norway, where they can range between US$12 and US$15 per pack. Not to mention that in Argentina, the price of a pack of twenty cigarettes does not usually exceed US$2.
[43] Corey, C. G., Holder-Hayes, E., Nguyen, A. B., Delnevo, C. D., Rostron, B. L., Bansal-Travers, M., Kimmel, H. L., Koblitz, A., Lambert, E., Pearson, J. L., Sharma, E., Tworek, C., Hyland, A. J., Conway, K. P., Ambrose, B. K., & Borek, N. (2018). US Adult Cigar Smoking Patterns, Purchasing Behaviors, and Reasons for Use According to Cigar Type: Findings From the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) Study, 2013-2014. Nicotine & tobacco research: official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco, 20(12), 1457-1466. Accessed on June 16, 2021, at https://doi.org/10.1093/ntr/ntx209.
[44] 80/2019 Sb. Zákon, kterým se mění některé zákony v oblasti daní a některé další zákony. Zákony pro Lidi. Accessed on June 16, 2022, at https://www.zakonyprolidi.cz/cs/2019-80#cl9.