This is hardly surprising. It’s immediately noticeable in images, but we’ll have to be very careful with other forms of output as the decline could be subtle enough to go unnoticed at first. There’s a very real risk of poisoning our sources of data by allowing AI to write back to them without oversight. And given that the sources of data seem to be things like Reddit and twitter this is a real concern.
I don’t think anyone seriously thinks you can actually get rid of cars entirely, but rather they’re annoyed that everything is built around the idea that you drive everywhere. This is damaging to the environment, human health, and probably even stifles community and culture.