The average American drives 15,000 miles a year, so this adds up to quite a bit of money, about $8,500.

With shifting societal needs and emerging technologies being announced nearly every day, some people are asking if the cost of owning a car is even worth it.

Breaking down that 57-cent figure, only about a dime of that goes towards fuel and maintenance.

The most expensive part, by far, of driving a new car is depreciation.

On average, a new car loses $15,000 of value during the first five years of ownership, about $3,000 a year.

While this hasn't been a sales issue to car buyers or manufacturers yet, car makers are worried about the future.

Millennials now make up more than a quarter of all Americans, making them the largest generation in the US.

And according to a report by the Brookings Institute, a huge number of them are moving to urban centers, where alternative services like Uber and Lyft, as well as public transportation or even walking and biking, are feasible driving replacements.

A few short years ago, if you wanted something, you had to go get it, and that usually meant hopping into your car.

But these days, if you need to buy anything, you can just get on your smartphone and have it delivered to your door.

And if you live in a city, same-day shipping and grocery deliveries are becoming more and more common.

This decreased reliance on the car is changing how we see the automobile.

Cars used to be a symbol of what it meant to be an American: freedom and the open road.

And because of this, they became an integral part of our society.

The classic representation of this is the rush to get your license when you turn 16, finally granting you the ability to do whatever you want, like see your friends or other stuff high schoolers do.

Now, though, a study released by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the CDC, who oddly track this kinda thing,

shows that fewer teens are choosing to get their driver's licenses, with the total number of high school senior drivers falling nearly 10% from 2006 to 2015.

These teens are choosing not to drive for a number of reasons.

These include things like the cost of owning and buying a car, and the fact that public transportation and ride-sharing apps have become more common,

and the ability/convenience to do things online without leaving their home.

I mean, think about it, when I was in high school, I wasn't going anywhere unless I knew someone with a car or my parents were down to drive me.

But now, any 15-year-old with a smartphone and an iTunes gift card can get a ride across town to Lindsey Luckenbach's house when her parents aren't home.

What a time to be alive.

For people my age, the keys to freedom started your car.

But now, it's a smartphone passcode.

To try to attract these otherwise lost customers, new methods of ownership are being thought up and tried out.

Manufacturers like Lincoln and Volvo are launching subscription programs in a number of locations around the world.

Rather than having to deal with purchasing or financing a car, then insuring it and maintaining it, all while dealing with depreciation, subscription programs roll all of that into a single monthly price and no down payment.

It's sort of like how cell phone companies have started rolling insurance and the cost of a phone and usage all into one bill.

For instance, Volvo's subscription services offer a vehicle, maintenance, and insurance, starting at $600 a month for 24 months, with the option to upgrade to a new vehicle after a year.

Although, if you upgrade, your 24 months restart, and that's how they keep you.

I'm keeping my eye on you, you Swedish bas—

And it isn't just Volvo.

Lincoln, Cadillac, Porsche, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz are all trying out subscription programs in one way or another.

They're all trying to (bleep) us.

Some companies are thinking even further into the future.

Unless you've been living under a rock or in my apartment, then you may have heard of Uber and Waymo testing autonomous cars on public streets.

Such developments might make car ownership a thing of the past.

AAA estimates that your car is doing nothing but sitting, turned off, for 95% of the time that you own it.

In this future world, vehicles are in use 95% of the time, constantly being summoned to and from where they are needed by connected devices.

Imagine, it's 2024, you're subscribed to an autonomous ride service.

You go to work at 8:00 every morning, so a car's waiting outside your house.

It already knows where you're going and will combine your trip with others to make the journey more efficient.

Your phone will tell the car you're inside, and it'll just drive away.

You slip on your Acme-brand VR goggles to distract yourself from the hellish, lonely, subscription-based dystopia, Ubertron is now driving you through.

As you arrive at Obey Corp., your car leaves for the next rider.

And you think to yourself, hey, you didn't even need to find parking.

On top of the financial hurdles of such a future is the hurdle of convincing the public, you know, you and me.

In Uber's world, cars are simply a means of transportation.

You use them to get from point A to point B.

While this may be true on paper, for many of us, including most of you watching this, our cars are so much more.

They're our happy place.

Somewhere to escape the day-to-day, to put the hammer down and drive.

And even if that's getting more expensive, I'm not ready to give that up.

What do you think?

Is it inevitable that we give up driving, or would you ever own an autonomous vehicle?

Let me know in the comments. Subscribe to Donut Media so you never miss an episode of WheelHouse.

If you wanna know how cars got so expensive, check out this episode of WheelHouse.

How about you watch this episode of Up to Speed?

It's on the Ford GT.

If you liked this video, share it with your friends, wear your seatbelt, I'll see you in—

Oh, what's that?

Oh, my... my Uber's here. Oh, well. See you later.