Frieda Pan

ISS 310

9/12/2017

Auto Autobiography (With Final Reflection)

The Toyota Camry has the stigma of being the immigrant car of choice, upheld by both

parents of Frieda Pan. Her earliest memories consisted of seeing the two white Camrys in the

garage, the headlights looking like faces- her fathers car, with big, boxy headlights, looked like

the eyes of a concerned elder with an affinity for sunglasses; her mothers car appeared to in a

constant state of worry, with round, drooping headlights. The latter of the cars was crashed on

the highway on her mothers way to work, and although the damage was minor, the

droopy-eyed white Camry from the 90s was replaced by a tan 2011 model. Once Friedas

second sibling was born, and road trips now had to carry a 6-person cargo, her family realized a

5-seater was no longer an option. Her fathers car was promptly sold off to a college student

with a bright red bob, and then replaced by a silver 2008 Toyota Sienna Le. Toyota became a

trusted brand among the Pan family- durable, safe, and reliable- the brand might as well had

been a member of the family.

Friedas first car was, of course, a Toyota- a royal blue 2006 Corolla. Bought

secondhand from Craigslist, the car smelled like cigarettes, had vomit stains in the backseat,

and brown smears across the ceiling: Frieda thought it was perfect. She didnt need the newest

model with the best speakers- the only car she wanted was one that could belong to her.

Finally, she didnt have to ask friends to pick her up for practice, or bail on plans because her

parents needed the family car. She could offer rides to friends, go on long drives, and be part of

clubs and events that took place further than a two mile radius from her house. She had more
privacy in her little blue car than her own bedroom, which shared each of its four walls with

another family member. Music could be blasted without complaint, she could talk on the phone

and shamelessly sing without a judging ear- a new chapter of adulthood was beginning to write

itself with this newfound freedom.

Being the oldest child, Friedas parents were weary to see their firstborn on the roads- a

car, to them, was a lethal bomb, that was only a matter of time before it did any damage. Habits

of driving 5 under the speed limit and steady accelerations and decelerations were enforced

from day 1. In drivers training, Frieda was among one of the only people who had never sat

behind the wheel before. Her first time her feet touched the gas was in drivers ed, with an

emergency break at the shotgun, and a trained, calm instructor riding along. She remembers

the what surprised her most about driving- after shifting the gear out of park, the car moves

without you touching anything. Also, breaking starts way before she thought she needed to

come to a stop. Drivers training was where she learned that driving means entering a shared

space that she didnt know people were part of- before being behind the wheel, sitting in a car

felt isolating and walled off from the rest of the world.

As a driver, the smallest tilt of a hand was viewable by a passerby. Driving does not exist

in a vacuum- recklessness behind the wheel affects those surrounding as well as much as the

driver themself. It is about response more than it is about decision, and the only way for Frieda

to learn how to respond well was to experience the road firsthand. She still distinctly remembers

a time she was on the expressway driving from Saginaw to Ann Arbor, when she cut too closely

in front of a semi truck just to be in a faster lane. However, she didnt accelerate fast enough,

and had it not been for her mother in the passenger seat ripping the wheel from her hands and

steering her back to a slower lane, both of them could have lost their lives that afternoon. This
reinforced her parents pleas to drive as carefully as possible- better to arrive late than take a

chance on human life.

Because of this, her driving tendencies are slow and cautious- she drives like she has all

the time in the world, knowing impatient driving causes rash decision making. This is why riding

with people who experience what is called road rage is overwhelmingly stressful for her-

unproductive and petty anger yields nothing but high blood pressure, and is easily avoided by

insisting on calm driving. Driving this way is therefore a stress reliever for her- it promotes

patience and clear-headedness, as well as awareness of surroundings.

Final Reflection

Before taking this class, Frieda could reliably say that the automobile was not of interest

of her, and that it would take significant effort for her to uphold an interesting conversation about

cars. Three months later, she inadvertently recorded a 48-minute long, energizing conversation

about cars without a second thought. She realized that the car had always been a player in the

shaping American society, it just may have been in the background of the portrait. Frieda

realized that cars werent all just about body shops and NASCAR. It was a significant player in

the United Statess geographical, sexual, racial, and economical landscape.

From the beginning of mass media, they were marketed as a means of freedom from the

mundane toil of live limited by distance. Laws passed that implemented a legal driving age, as

well as drive-in movie theaters, and the physical intimacy of being in a car with a significant

other caused cars to be associated with youth culture.

Cars were not only symbols of youth and freedom, they were (literal) vehicles for

expression. They could mean liberation from class status, or a reinforcement of racial

oppression. They caused the creation of entire industries around oil and manufacturing, as well

as a strong lobbying force in Congress. The notion of mobility meant that members of the LGBT
community could come together and escape the judgement of a same-sex relationship. Cars

were a powerful means of redefining the country physically and socially.

Frieda also was able to recognize the true costs that come with owning a car. The

monetary price of owning a car was mapped out in the Car Budget Project, which shed light on

hidden costs that come from owning a car. These include insurance, maintenance, gas, and

depreciation, on top of the payment for the car itself. She was also able to begin to understand

the environmental price of car ownership, and further analyze the trajectory of owning a

carbon-emitting vehicle during the Car Emissions Debate. This debate also allowed her to see

the paradox of owning an electric vehicle, and that just because a car does not have an exhaust

pipe, it does not mean there arent unseen pollutants that come with their manufacturing as well

as the fuel source for their energy. The future of cars seem to be held in the hands of the

electric-powered vehicles, but that only becomes sustainable when the foundational energy

source is sustainable as well.

Frieda was also able to engage in the excitement of autonomous cars. While the

surrounding debate of their safety is still valid, she began to find herself more and more excited

at the idea of an autonomous road, and framed her final podcast as a conversation on the topic.

A mere semester after writing the first edition of her Auto-autobiography, Frieda was

quickly forced to amend her perspective on cars, and reevaluate just how significant they had

been in multiple facets of the society she lives in. All of this was in thanks to section 1 of ISS

310, which drove her, so to speak, to a subject she would have never thought to explore.