meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
The War on Cars

Kara Swisher Says Car Ownership is Finished

The War on Cars

The War on Cars, LLC

Cars, Society & Culture, Culture, Bicycling, Politics, Urbanism, Walking, Transportation, Cities, Transit, News Commentary, News

4.9937 Ratings

🗓️ 10 December 2019

⏱️ 35 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Last March, renowned tech journalist and prognosticator Kara Swisher wrote a New York Times opinion piece with the headline, “Owning a car will soon be as quaint as owning a horse.” In it, she declared she would sell her own car and vowed she would never again own an automobile. “The concept of actually purchasing, maintaining, insuring and garaging an automobile in the next few decades? Finished,” she wrote. That column set off thousands of outraged commenters — and activated the radar at The War on Cars. We sat down with Kara at the Vox studios in downtown Manhattan to talk about what it’s like living without wheels of her own, why she loves scooters, and whether we’ll ever get the Star Trek Holodeck we’ve been promised.

Support The War on Cars on Patreon and receive stickers, T-shirts, exclusive access to special audio content and more.

Buy an official War on Cars T-shirt at Cotton Bureau.

Rate and review The War On Cars on iTunes.

SHOW NOTES:

Kara says owning a car will soon be as quaint as owning a horse (New York Times)

Times readers tell Kara she has no idea what she’s talking about (New York Times)

Kara’s update on life without her own car (New York Times)

Kara tours Paris by scooter (New York Times)

Follow Kara on Twitter.

Listen to Kara’s Recode Decode and Pivot podcasts.

Is the Star Trek Holodeck closer than you think?

Find us onTwitter @TheWarOnCars, Aaron Naparstek @Naparstek, Sarah Goodyear @buttermilk1 and Doug Gordon @BrooklynSpoke.

Email us! [email protected]

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

On March 22nd, 2019, an opinion piece appeared in the New York Times under the headline,

0:06.0

Owning a car will soon be as quaint as owning a horse.

0:11.0

The column was by tech journalist Karis Swisher. a horse.

0:12.6

The column was by tech journalist Kara Swisher.

0:15.1

She wrote, the concept of actually purchasing, maintaining, ensuring, and garaging an automobile

0:20.3

in the next few decades, finished.

0:24.0

Kara announced that she was selling her own car

0:26.6

and that she would, I'm quoting here, die

0:29.0

before I buy another car.

0:32.4

As you can imagine, as soon as we saw that, we knew we had to talk to her.

0:38.0

Welcome to the War on Cars. The podcast that imagines a world where you can get around

0:45.3

without owning a 4,000 pound metal box that can kill people.

0:48.7

I'm Sarah Goodyear.

0:50.0

With my co-host Aaron Napersack and Doug Gordon,

0:52.9

I talked with Kara Swisher the other day

0:54.7

at Fox Studios in downtown Manhattan.

0:57.2

Right, what are we talking about?

0:59.1

We're talking about cars.

1:00.8

Okay, all right, let's go. We're like their right. Let's go.

1:03.0

You're up.

1:04.0

It's great actually.

1:05.0

Kara has not one but two of her own Vox Podcasts, Recode Decode, Decode, and Pivot.

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The War on Cars, LLC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The War on Cars, LLC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.