Die Deutschen und ihr Auto — was passiert wenn keiner mehr fahren muss?

New York, 1910: 13,800 carriage makers. New York, 1920: 90. An entire world vanished without anyone banning it. That's precisely what now awaits the automobile—and a country that has defined itself by the steering wheel for a century. 50,000 jobs will disappear at VW by 2030—but Mercedes has just received the world's most widely approved Level 3 certification for autonomous driving, and Bosch is investing billions in the sensor technology behind it. Waymo drives without a driver 14 million times a year—and a humanoid robot from Tokyo simply gets behind the wheel of an ordinary car. The 2,832 traffic fatalities in Germany last year could be reduced to a few hundred—and in 2015, a Jeep in another state had its brakes remotely disabled. This episode takes stock of the whole picture: what will change for you as an individual, what risks are involved, and what adjustments are in store. And finally, the question that no one has yet asked publicly: Who bears the costs of something that primarily benefits cities and corporations? ⏱ Chapter markers: 0:00 Broadway 1910 — when the horses disappeared 1:48 The land of the highway 3:05 The wish machine 3:41 The road — 2,832 deaths a year 4:19 The factory — 50,000 jobs at VW, but also Mercedes and Bosch 6:26 The driver's seat — Waymo, Musashi, and the separation of labor 8:11 The old score — what really happened in 1910 9:35 Liberation and wounding 11:17 Autonomy — your day without a driver 12:52 The risks — hacking, cameras, morality machines 14:45 The changes — from ownership to access 16:19 What this means for you 17:34 Germany 2035 — still car country? 📚 Sources & Further Reading: Carriage makers in the USA: 13,800 (1890) → 90 (1920) Wolfgang Sachs: "The Love of the Automobile" (Rowohlt, 1984) Volkswagen (March 2026): 50,000 jobs by 2030, profit in 2025 -44% to €6.9 billion Destatis, Press Release No. 238 (July 7, 2026): 2,832 traffic fatalities / 371,000 injured in 2025; 170 alcohol-related fatalities Waymo Annual Report 2025: 14 million rides, 450,000 paid rides/week (Dec.) SF Taxi Workers Alliance: ~300 drivers with defaulted medallion loans McKinsey: autonomous trucks -45% freight costs, $600 billion market by 2035 McKinsey Global Institute: US auto industry 1910–1950, net 6.9 million new jobs Mercedes-Benz Drive Pilot: KBA Level 3 approval, up to 95 km/h on the entire German Autobahn network (Dec. 2024) Bosch: €2.5 billion AI investment by 2027; VW-Bosch alliance ends (June 2026) Charlie Miller & Chris Valasek: Jeep Cherokee hack 2015, 1.4 million recalls Reuters/Tesla (2023): Employees shared private camera footage MIT "Moral Machine" experiment: 40 million decisions from 233 countries BMW: Seat heating subscription controversy 2022 University of Tokyo: Humanoid robot "Musashi" Kai-Fu Lee: "AI 2041", chapter "The Holy Driver" 🔗 More from HUMaiN: → Free AI check: humain.day