Soon, I may not need my car keys.  Now you may think that I have made a healthy new year’s commitment to begin a walking routine which includes increasing my physical ambulation.  Well, I have but the focus of this article is a little different.

When new cars are sold these days they don’t come with a car key.  The buyer is presented with a car “bob.”  It resembles a child-size deck of cards embedded with an imprint of the dealership.  Having the “bob” within a close vicinity of the car and pressing a button inside the car ensures ignition. So, the traditional car key is disappearing.

Additionally, the driverless car is slowly appearing on the scene.  Technology ensures that an automobile can drive, stop, slow, accelerate, swerve, and avoid an accident without the “hands-on” assistance of a human being.  This ever-present, increasing technology may well eliminate the need for a driver as well.  So goes the driver as went the key.

This brings questions to mind.  Will we need a drivers license?  Will teenagers no longer take drivers education courses? Will we no longer use our drivers license for identification? Will a teenager no longer endure the “rite-of-passage” of enduring the driving test at the DMV? Will we no longer need the DMV?

Looking at the array of car keys hanging on hooks at my back door, I wonder if they will slowly disappear along with me as a driver of my own car.