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The automobile has long been a symbol of everything great and everything terrible about America. On the one hand： freedom， individualism， power， speed. The taming1 of millions of miles of varied wildernesses through roads， then highways， then interstates. The capacity of American industry—Pittsburgh’s steel， Akron’s rubber， Detroit’s factories.2
But on the other hand： gas-guzzling SUVs3. Traffic and sprawl4. The abandonment of mass transit. The suburb and then the exurb， with their undeniable ties to white flight and segregation.5 The decline of the Rust Belt， the near-collapse of the Big Three automakers during the Great Recession of 2008，6 and the slow death of American manufacturing and blue-collar work.
Now， after four decades of doldrums7， things are looking up for American carmakers， in ways that would have been hard to imagine just 10 years ago. Yet the changes ahead won’t reconcile the great and the terrible of the past； instead， the conflicts between freedom and community， power and equity， will play out in new ways. Here’s what that future will look like.
1. Baby Steps Toward Autonomy ...
Google， Tesla， and Uber—companies that didn’t even exist when Toyota introduced the Prius，8 in 1997—have become major players in the auto industry. Both Google and Tesla aim to introduce fully autonomous cars within the next several years， and Uber recently founded an R
But on the other hand： gas-guzzling SUVs3. Traffic and sprawl4. The abandonment of mass transit. The suburb and then the exurb， with their undeniable ties to white flight and segregation.5 The decline of the Rust Belt， the near-collapse of the Big Three automakers during the Great Recession of 2008，6 and the slow death of American manufacturing and blue-collar work.
Now， after four decades of doldrums7， things are looking up for American carmakers， in ways that would have been hard to imagine just 10 years ago. Yet the changes ahead won’t reconcile the great and the terrible of the past； instead， the conflicts between freedom and community， power and equity， will play out in new ways. Here’s what that future will look like.
1. Baby Steps Toward Autonomy ...
Google， Tesla， and Uber—companies that didn’t even exist when Toyota introduced the Prius，8 in 1997—have become major players in the auto industry. Both Google and Tesla aim to introduce fully autonomous cars within the next several years， and Uber recently founded an R