Talk about assuming the premise...
100% might say smartphones, because a car requires freedom of movement to deploy. They can still use their smartphone in their bedrooms, so of course a child -- whose movements are highly regulated by their guardians -- are going to choose the item they get the most utility out of.
Smartphones represent communication. Andreessen would do well to investigate the difference between comms and liberty.
Re:Kids Don’t Care About Cars
by johnpowell on Monday July 07, 2014 @01:50AM
(#7997278)
My sisters kid was given this choice around 5 years ago. He would instantly stop talking if you were in a conversation and shift all his attention to the phone if it buzzes. My sister said car or phone. It was clear that he couldn't be trusted with a phone in a car.
He picked the phone and still doesn't drive or have his license. (Portland, OR)
A smart kid would realize that with a car he could have a job and then buy his own smartphone.
Re:Kids Don’t Care About Cars
by cenhyperion on Monday July 07, 2014 @12:25AM
(#7997073)
Employed 16 year old here who has intentionally chosen not to buy a car. My job is three miles away, it's healthier to walk, and my other work is all remote. I'm using the money I could have spent buying/maintaining a car to travel Europe with my two best friends next summer.
Employment doesn't require a car, even for teens.
Re:Kids Don’t Care About Cars
by danielschonfeld on Sunday July 06, 2014 @11:50PM
(#7996957)
An even smarter kid, realizes already that for cash flow, you don't really have to leave the house. Smartphone (and iPad or PC) wins again.
Someone smarter than that would get the car and sell it for way more than it costs to buy a smartphone.
Re:Kids Don’t Care About Cars
by sundaeofshock on Monday July 07, 2014 @12:06AM
(#7997018)
47% of the population of San Francisco uses something other than a car to get to work. In big cities, a car is not needed to get a well paying job. The really smart kids realize this.
'kids today'[1] have quite a lot of representation outside the concentrated city centre - usually city centres have a higher-than-average age. Cool, SF is tiny, compact, and riddled with public transport. Now travel down the coast a bit to greater LA, 20 million people of which have poor access to public transport and live in a very spread out city, limiting the utility of getting around via musclepower. Rinse, repeat anywhere you have spread-out suburbia with poor PT, or outside cities altogether..
[1] article's chosen demographic, though it doesn't really matter
"Ask kids if they’d rather have a smartphone or a car if they had to pick and 100% would say smartphones. Because smartphones represent freedom."