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How I Learned to Hate Cars, and What I’m Doing About It

Commentary: My journey down the anti-car rabbit hole.

I hit a moving car the other day. Not with my own car – with my hand. More of a reproachful slap, really. 

I was on my bike, squeezed perilously among traffic-stalled cars. A zombie driver, briefly reanimated by the thrill of a green light, nearly drove me off the road. I swerved into a parked car, wondering as I caught my balance and my breath – did anyone in this rush hour hellscape even care if I was, ya know, fatally injured? 

At the next red light, I caught up with the car and, in a decisive moment of self-righteous rage, enacted a bit of corporal punishment on its right bumper. It felt amazing. 

Read more: High Gas Prices Are Revving Up This Online Anti-Car Movement

This feels like an opportune time for a record scratch freeze-frame and an «I bet you’re wondering how I got into this situation» voiceover.

This wasn’t the first time a car had given me a life-flashing-before-my-eyes moment of panic, and it certainly won’t be the last. Motor vehicle crashes are a leading cause of death for Americans ages 5 to 24, making cars a menace not just to cyclists but also pedestrians and even other drivers. 

When you combine the grim safety stats with the motor vehicle’s myriad other sins –one-third of US greenhouse gas emissions, the utter depravity of paving paradise to put up a parking lot and so on –a portrait emerges of the car as not an achievement of human ingenuity, but a pretty good scapegoat for… just about everything. And, as I learned by going down a vibrant and inspiring online anti-car rabbit hole, it turns out I’m not the only one coming to this particular conclusion.

Two wheels good, four wheels bad

About a year ago, I moved to a very bike-friendly neighborhood in bike-friendly(ish) Sacramento –decent infrastructure, flat roads, temperate climate, good building density –and almost overnight became a smug cycling evangelist. «We are within biking distance of three grocery stores,» I tell everyone back home, «and Target.» I notice things now like well-placed bollards and accessible bike parking, and I often indulge in delicious indignation when someone blocks a bike lane with their trash can. My local farmer’s market has a free bike valet. I’ve even realized a latent yet lifelong dream of biking my son to school every day. 

Speaking of my son, my little sponge-brained 3-year-old now regularly asks why people are driving when they ought to be biking, and I couldn’t be more proud. The two of us stumbled upon a vintage car show one morning and he turned to me and said, in his earnest toddler lilt, «We don’t like cars, right, Mama? We like bikes and walking.» And I was just like, yes, child, yeeeeessss.

But it wasn’t just my new two-wheeled lifestyle that stoked my dormant disgust for car dependence. The story of my radicalization really begins, as these stories often do, on Twitter.

Back when my Twitter feed actually showed tweets from people I have elected to follow, I noticed that two of my IRL acquaintances from past lives had begun to post often about their own bike commutes, advocating for better infrastructure and occasionally complaining about entitled drivers. I was intrigued by their car-free existences and fancy e-bikes with endless permutations of cargo racks and child seats.

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Over time, I began seeing their posts more frequently, alongside similar tweets from accounts like American Fietser and Cars Destroyed Our Cities and even the World Bollard Association. I clicked. I followed. I engaged. Then these two IRL acquaintances started tweeting at each other. I was witnessing the almighty algo at work in real time, and for the first time it felt more invigorating than bleak.

Soon, I found myself consuming memes on r/fuckcars, bingeing the Not Just Bikes YouTube channel, following Strong Towns on Instagram, signing up for the Our Built Environment Substack, subscribing to The War on Cars podcast and more. I started explaining to anyone who would listen why parking requirements are to blame for most societal ills. I developed strong opinions about bike rack design. I dropped the word «stroad» into casual conversation.

In the span of only a few weeks, I went from proverbial Prius Lover to Car Destroyer on the pro/anti-car political compass I found on the Fuck Cars feed. And I started to wonder… had I been radicalized?

I’m not the only one asking that question. A sampling of other tweets to cross my algorithmically programmed feed: «can’t believe i’m finally being radicalized online and it’s by the @FuckCarsReddit,» and «NotJustBikes had radicalized me more then [sic] anything else in recent times,» or my favorite, «You watch one video on zoning laws in Japan and then suddenly it was 2am and I’m all like ‘it’s so true bestie, the suburban experiment *is* an anti-human ponzi scheme.'»

So what’s going on here?

Help, I’m orange-pilled

«These days it sometimes feels difficult to have your mind blown by a small observation,» the anonymous moderators of the Fuck Cars Twitter account told me. (Anonymity allows them to facilitate conversation, rather than making them spokespeople for the cause, they say.) «But r/fuckcars is full of mind-blowing realizations.»

It’s true. Did you know the average cost to operate a new car is almost $11,000 every year? Or that an urban resident who swaps the car for a bike for just one trip a day would save the equivalent emissions of a flight between London and New York every year? (And no, EVs won’t save us.) 

And did you know (I’m shaking you by the collar here) the concept of «jaywalking» was invented by the auto industry as one part of a coordinated effort to use the very fabric of our city design to maximize profits? European cities like Amsterdam represent both a bygone dream and an idyllic vision of the future; after all, we didn’t design US cities for the car –we bulldozed them to accommodate it.

Car dependency is bad on so many levels: It excludes the old, the young and the disabled from moving freely in ways public transit doesn’t, and it disproportionately taxes the poor. Car infrastructure is incredibly expensive. Being stuck in traffic is no one’s idea of a good time. And car-centered city design is isolating and just plain ugly. (Two words: Urban. Sprawl.)

«Like everyone else in suburbia, you were born into bondage,» proclaims Jason Slaughter in the Not Just Bikes YouTube channel’s foundational text on car dependency, «born into a prison you cannot escape without a motor vehicle.» It is tongue-in-cheek, a self-proclaimed «shitpost» of a video that introduces the «orange pill,» playing off that much-referenced Matrix monologue, but there’s something to it. Orange-pilling (not to be confused with the Bitcoin version of the orange pill, which I can only assume has worse side effects) might share the aesthetics of a conspiracy theory, but –and yes, I know this is something a conspiracy theorist would also say –it’s all true.

«Many of the mods were ‘radicalized’ by NJB’s [Not Just Bikes] Jason Slaughter,» a Fuck Cars moderator told me. «One of our mods actually remembers coming home from a trip to the low-car parts of Europe, and being disgusted and depressed by the frankly ugly car infrastructure, but not being able to explain why it was so bad. Then NJB came along, and suddenly we not only know how to explain what makes it bad, we can’t stop seeing it everywhere.»

The causes of our car-dependent hell are complex and diverse. It’s a real We Didn’t Start the Fire situation: oil shocks, white flight, assembly line automation, tax subsidies, «urban renewal,» the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956… I’m still in perpetual Math Lady meme mode with this stuff. My mind is newly blown every time I engage with the podcasts, newsletters and tweets the algorithms have hand-curated for me in my cozy little filter bubble. Everything makes sense now: The anti-car movement was the missing piece all along.

Fuck cars, amirite?

The Fuck Cars subreddit, founded in 2016, is a virtual utopia of its own, filled with «infrastructure porn» and likeminded urbanists who toss around references to the Jevons paradox and believe «Cars should be a last resort, not a first option.» In Fuck Cars world, car crashes are not «accidents» and people are categorized as YIMBYs and NIMBYs, not Democrats and Republicans. 

Despite its name, the community’s end game is decidedly not to ban all cars. Instead, they advocate for a world where driving a car is a choice, not the only option. It’s the kind of freedom I discovered when I moved to Sacramento, not the kind of freedom many drivers falsely convince themselves they can access behind the wheel of an oversized pickup truck.

There’s no real «us versus them» in the anti-car movement, because –paradoxically, poetically –even drivers would benefit from people-first infrastructure. «Would you rather drive to work on a lean, free flowing road or a huge, congested freeway?» the subreddit FAQ asks. «It turns out expanding highways and building more roads actually makes traffic worse due to induced demand.» 

In other words, those who have to drive would have a better time of it if the rest of us could get out of their way. That means investing in bike-friendly infrastructure, public transit and overall walkability.

One way of doing this, according to Debra Banks, executive director of Sacramento Area Bicycle Advocates (the organization behind my farmer’s market’s bike valet), is by lowering speed limits. Another is a «road diet,» or decreasing a road’s width or number of lanes.

bikes parked under a canopy with a sign that says

«We’ve advocated for closing streets to cars and have worked with our city and county electees to complete a low-stress bicycle network, which would allow people to safely trade their car keys for a bike to make short trips around town,» Banks said. «But implementation has been very slow. Actions lag far behind plans and discussion.»

The anti-car movement may be exploiting the tools of online radicalization. It’s got the memes, the Matrix riffs, the provocative subreddit titles. (One Fuck Cars moderator points out an issue with milder options: «‘r/urbandesignshouldbeforpeople’ or ‘r/carsusespaceinefficiently’ would be harder to remember.») But if you ask me, the ends justify the means. 

For perspective, the Sacramento Mayors’ Commission on Climate Change recommends 40% of trips be via «active transportation» (walking, cycling and so on) by 2045, and another 50% by public transit. Those numbers today are closer to 10% and 4%, respectively. That leaves 86% of car trips, which need to go down to a seemingly impossible 10%. If some snarky tweets can nudge the needle in the right direction, send in the shitposts. Come for the outrage, stay for the political action.

Are you with me? We ride (the bus) at dawn

Still not convinced? «Go to a store in a manner that is not a car,» the mods recommend. «See how lovely it is outside, but also what challenges you face by taking the simple act of avoiding a car for one trip. How did this make you feel? The more you utilize what a city offers, the more you will want to change.»

It was at this point I realized that maybe I was giving Twitter too much credit. I’d tried biking and taking public transit to the grocery store in other cities I’ve lived in, and it wasn’t easy. It’s not just that the infrastructure wasn’t there, but the trip was so inconvenient that I felt I had to really stock up, which meant lugging enough groceries home to fill the cab of an F-150. Perhaps a lifetime of frustration without an obvious cause («car blindness,» the phenomenon is called) was my camel, and the anti-car movement was merely the straw that broke its back. 

I asked the Fuck Cars folks how to channel all the rage their memes have galvanized. Their subreddit FAQ has a ton of resources on how to make your community less car-centric and how to be less car-dependent in your daily life. You can spread the word on your own Twitter feed. You can make the maps of your neighborhood more conducive to non-car travel. You can even skirt the law and fashion your own protected bike lanes.

But their No. 1 piece of advice is to work at the local level. 

«Talking to your city council has a much bigger impact than you would think,» the mods told me. «They usually hear from so few of the populace that whatever you say can have a big impact on their mode of thought.»

Banks agrees: «It is easy to be a critic, but that doesn’t help unless you take action,» she said. «The democratic process means you need to take the long view and stick with the things you want to advocate for.»

A few weeks ago, I caught another mom at school pickup ogling my child bike seat. It was the closest I’ve ever come to understanding the thrill of being a gearhead showing off their car. «I love your bike seat!» she said.

At first I felt pleased with myself for having such a sweet setup, like I’d joined the ranks of those Twitter acquaintances with their fancy e-bikes. But then she added «I’m just too nervous to bike with my kid in traffic,» and my pleasure was eclipsed by the understanding that we have so much work left to do. There’s a long road ahead –a stroad, if you will –paved with two generations of infrastructure and political inertia. 

But there is relief in giving the problem a name, and coming together online with others who share the same frustrations and the same urbanist utopia dream. I know now that it’s not an individual problem but a systemic one, and though I still get a thrill from yelling «this is a bike lane, asshole!» to delivery trucks with their four-ways a-flashing, I understand now that there are better ways to cope than by slapping a car.

Correction, 2:55 p.m. PT: This story originally misstated the age range for deaths caused by motor vehicles. Motor vehicles are a  leading cause of death for those ages 5-24.  

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Today Only You Can Get the Super Mario Galaxy 2-Pack at $14 Off

Enjoy two of Nintendo’s best Mario games in one package with a decent amount off.

Best Buy has a deal on at the moment that knocks the price of Super Mario Galaxy and Mario Galaxy 2 on Nintendo Switch down to $56. That’s a $14 discount, which is a lot on a first-party Nintendo game.

Nintendo Switch games are notorious for never really going down in price, which makes every deal that happens worth at least considering. Last time this was on sale, it was for $59; this is $3 cheaper than that, making the value even better. That’s two all-time-classic games for $28 each, basically, which is fantastic.

The only problem with this is that it’s a Best Buy daily deal, which means that it runs out tonight. So, if you do want to pick this up at this price, you’re going to need to be quick.

In his review, CNET’s Scott Stein was a big fan of both revamped Mario titles included in this bundle, but less so the $70 asking price. This deal goes a long way to helping fix that problem and gives you the chance to add two classic Mario titles to your collection at a discount.

Originally released on the Wii, both Super Mario Galaxy and Galaxy 2 have been updated with higher-resolution visuals, an improved interface and new content, so there’s never been a better time to play them. And unlike the originals, you can play these Switch games anywhere and at any time. 

Why this deal matters

Mario games are like no other, and they’re great for adults and kids alike. This bundle includes two of the best, and right now you can pick it up at a price that makes them an even better buy than they already were. Whether you played them the first time around, you’re looking to see what all the fuss was about or want to introduce them to a new generation of Mario fans, this is the deal for you.

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I’ve Seen It With My Own Eyes: The Robots Are Here and Walking Among Us

The «physical AI» boom has created a world of opportunity for robot makers, and they’re not holding back.

It’s been 24 years since CNET first published an article with the headline The robots are coming. It’s a phrase I’ve repeated in my own writing over the years — mostly in jest. But now in 2026, for the first time, I feel confident in declaring that the robots have finally arrived.

I kicked off this year, as I often do, wandering the halls of the Las Vegas Convention Center and its hotel-based outposts on the lookout for the technology set to define the next 12 months. CES has always been a hotbed of activity for robots, but more often than not, a robot that makes a flashy Vegas debut doesn’t go on to have a rich, meaningful career in the wider world.

In fact, as cute as they often are and as fun as they can be to interact with on the show floor, most robots I’ve seen at CES over the years amount to little more than gimmicks. They either come back year after year with no notable improvements or are never seen or heard from again.

In more than a decade of covering the show, I’ve been waiting for a shift to occur. In 2026, I finally witnessed it. From Hyundai unveiling the final product version of the Boston Dynamics Atlas humanoid robot in its press conference to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s focus on «physical AI» during his keynote, a sea change was evident this year in how people were talking about robots.

«We’ve had this dream of having robots everywhere for decades and decades,» Rev Lebaredian, Nvidia’s vice president of Omniverse and simulation told me on the sidelines of the chipmaker’s vast exhibition at the glamorous Fontainebleau Hotel. «It’s been in sci-fi as long as we can remember.» 

Throughout the show, I felt like I was watching that sci-fi vision come to life. Everywhere I went, I was stumbling upon robot demos (some of which will be entering the market this year) drawing crowds, like the people lining up outside Hyundai’s booth to see the new Atlas in action.

So what’s changed? Until now, «we didn’t have the technology to create the brain of a robot,» Lebaredian said.

AI has unlocked our ability to apply algorithms to language, and it’s being applied to the physical world, changing everything for robots and those who make them.

The physical AI revolution

What truly makes a robot a robot? Rewind to CES 2017: I spent my time at the show asking every robotics expert that question, sparked by the proliferation of autonomous vehicles, drones and intelligent smart home devices.

This exercise predated the emergence of generative AI and models such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, but already I could see that by integrating voice assistants into their products, companies were beginning to blur the boundaries of what could be considered robotics.

Not only has the tech evolved since that time, but so has the language we use to talk about it. At CES 2026, the main topic of conversation seemed to be «physical AI.» It’s an umbrella term that can encompass everything from self-driving cars to robots.

«If you have any physical embodiments, where AI is not only used to perceive the environment, but actually to take decisions and actions that interact with the environment around it … then it’s physical AI,» Ahmed Sadek, head of physical AI and vice president of engineering at chipmaker Qualcomm told me.

Autonomous vehicles have been the easiest expression of physical AI to build so far, according to Lebaredian, simply because their main challenge is to dodge objects rather than interact with them. «Avoiding touching things is a lot easier than manipulating things,» he said.

Still, the development of self-driving vehicles has done much of the heavy lifting on the hardware, setting the stage for robot development to accelerate at a rapid pace now that the software required to build a brain is catching up.

For Nvidia, which worked on the new Atlas robot with Boston Dynamics, and Qualcomm, which announced its latest robotics platform at CES, these developments present a huge opportunity. 

But that opportunity also extends to start-ups. Featured prominently at the CES 2026 booth of German automotive company Schaeffler was the year-and-a-half-old British company Humanoid, demonstrating the capabilities of its robot HMND 01.

The wheeled robot was built in just seven months Artem Sokolov, Humanoid’s CEO, told me, as we watch it sort car parts with its pincerlike hands. «We built our bipedal one for service and household much faster — in five months,» Sokolov added.

Humanoid’s speed can be accounted for by the AI boom plus an influx of talent recruited from top robotics companies, said Sokolov. The company has already signed around 25,000 preorders for HMND 01 and completed pilots with six Fortune 500 companies, he said.

This momentum extends to the next generation of Humanoid’s robots, where Sokolov doesn’t foresee any real bottlenecks. The main factors dictating the pace will be improvements in AI models and making the hardware more reliable and cost effective.

Humanoid hype hits its peak

Humanoid the company might have the rights to the name, but the concept of humanoids is a wider domain. 

By the end of last year, the commercialization of humanoid robots had entered an «explosive phase of growth,» with a 508% year-on-year increase in global market revenue to $440 million, according to a report released by IDC this month.

At CES, Qualcomm’s robot demonstration showed how its latest platform could be adapted across different forms, including a robotic arm that could assemble a sandwich. But it was the humanoids at its booth that caused everyone to pull out their phones and start filming.

«Our vision is that if you have any embodiment, any mechatronic system, our platform should be able to transform it to a continuously learning intelligent robot,» said Qualcomm’s Sadek. But, he added, the major benefit of the humanoid form is its «flexibility.»

Some in the robotics world have criticized the focus on humanoids, due to their replication of our own limitations. It’s a notion that Lebaredian disagrees with, pointing out that we’ve designed our world around us and that robots need to be able to operate within it.

«There are many tasks that are dull, dangerous and dirty — they call it the three Ds — that are being done by humans today, that we have labor shortages for and that this technology can potentially go help us with,» he said.

We already have many specialist robots working in factories around the world, Lebaredian added. With their combination of arms, legs and mobility, humanoids are «largely a superset of all of the other kinds of robots» and, as such, are perfect for the more general-purpose work we need help with.

The hype around robots — and humanoids in particular — at CES this year felt intense. Even Boston Dynamics CEO Robert Playter acknowledged this in a Q&A with reporters moments after he unveiled the new Atlas on stage.

But it’s not just hype, Playter insisted, because Boston Dynamics is already demonstrating that they can put thousands of robots in the market. «That is not an indication of a hype cycle, but actually an indication of an emerging industry,» he said.

A huge amount of money is being poured into a rapidly growing number of robotics start-ups. The rate of this investment is a signal that the tech is ready to go, according to Nvidia’s Lebaredian.

«It’s because, fundamentally, the experts, people who understand this stuff, now believe, technically, it’s all possible,» he said. «We’ve switched from a scientific problem of discovery to an engineering problem.»

Robot evolution: From industry to home

From what I observed at the show, this engineering «problem» is one that many companies have already solved. Robots such as Atlas and HMND 01 have crossed the threshold from prototype to factory ready. The question for many of us will be as to when will these robots be ready for our homes.

Playter has openly talked about Boston Dynamics’ ambitions in this regard. He sees Atlas evolving into a home robot — but not yet. Some newer entrants to the robotics market — 1X, Sunday Robotics and Humanoid among them — are keen to get their robots into people’s homes in the next couple of years. Playter cautions against this approach.

«Companies are advertising that they want to go right to the home,» he said. «We think that’s the wrong strategy.»

The reasons he listed are twofold: pricing and safety. Playter echoed a sentiment I’ve heard elsewhere: that the first real use for home humanoid robots will be to carry out care duties for disabled and elderly populations. Perhaps in 20 years, you will have a robot carry you in and out of bed, but relying on one to do so when you’re in a vulnerable state poses «critical safety issue,» he said.

Putting robots in factories first allows people to work closely with them while keeping a safe distance, allowing those safety kinks to be ironed out. The deployment of robots at scale in industrial settings will also lead to mass manufacturing of components that will, at some point, make robots affordable for the rest of us, said Playter (unlike 1X’s $20,000 Neo robot, for example).

Still, he imagines the business model will be «robots as a service,» even when they do first enter our homes. Elder care itself is a big industry with real money being spent that could present Boston Dynamics with a market opportunity as Atlas takes its first steps beyond the factory floor.

«I spent a lot of money … with my mom in specialty care the last few years,» he said. «Having robots that can preserve autonomy and dignity at home, I think people will actually spend money — maybe $20K a year.»

The first «care» robots are more likely to be companion robots. This year at the CES, Tombot announced that its robotic labrador, Jennie, who first charmed me back at the show in 2020, is finally ready to go on sale. It served as yet another signal to me that the robots are ready to lead lives beyond the convention center walls.

Unlike in previous years, I left Vegas confident that I’ll be seeing more of this year’s cohort of CES robots in the future. Maybe not in my home just yet, but it’s time to prepare for a world in which robots will increasingly walk among us.

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Today’s Wordle Hints, Answer and Help for Jan. 29, #1685

Here are hints and the answer for today’s Wordle for Jan. 29, No. 1,685.

Looking for the most recent Wordle answer? Click here for today’s Wordle hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Wordle puzzle was a tough one for me. I never seem to guess three of the letters in this word. If you need a new starter word, check out our list of which letters show up the most in English words. If you need hints and the answer, read on.

Read more: New Study Reveals Wordle’s Top 10 Toughest Words of 2025

Today’s Wordle hints

Before we show you today’s Wordle answer, we’ll give you some hints. If you don’t want a spoiler, look away now.

Wordle hint No. 1: Repeats

Today’s Wordle answer has no repeated letters.

Wordle hint No. 2: Vowels

Today’s Wordle answer has one vowel and one sometimes vowel.

Wordle hint No. 3: First letter

Today’s Wordle answer begins with F.

Wordle hint No. 4: Last letter

Today’s Wordle answer ends with Y.

Wordle hint No. 5: Meaning

Today’s Wordle answer can refer to a pastry that breaks apart easily.

TODAY’S WORDLE ANSWER

Today’s Wordle answer is FLAKY.

Yesterday’s Wordle answer

Yesterday’s Wordle answer, Jan. 28, No. 1684 was CRUEL.

Recent Wordle answers

Jan. 24, No. 1680: CLIFF

Jan. 25, No. 1681: STRUT

Jan. 26, No. 1682: FREAK

Jan. 27, No. 1683: DUSKY

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