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My grandfather started driving a tractor at 8, a car around town at 11. But, that was a very, very long time ago. Hardly the complexities of modern day driving.
Edsel Ford, a gift from his father Henry Ford, got his own car at 8 year of age and drove himself to and from school with it, with the absence of a legal minimum driving age. And he spent hours tinkering in the workshop his father equipped for him, filling his schoolbooks with drawings of cars.
Hey! What's wrong with that!!!
And by age 10? Driving from Dearborn into Detroit to have lunch with his father?
Source: Ford, The Men and the Machine by Robert Lacey
Let's see, Edsel was born in 1893 so he would have been 8 in 1901. Most likely the car could go no faster than 5 mph.
Were 8-year-old boys typically allowed to drive pony carts in 1901?
Edsel Ford, a gift from his father Henry Ford, got his own car at 8 year of age and drove himself to and from school with it, with the absence of a legal minimum driving age. And he spent hours tinkering in the workshop his father equipped for him, filling his schoolbooks with drawings of cars.
Hey! What's wrong with that!!!
And by age 10? Driving from Dearborn into Detroit to have lunch with his father?
Source: Ford, The Men and the Machine by Robert Lacey
Only if you live somewhere such that there is absolutely zero chance of other vehicles or pedestrians. That is, a closed course.
You'd also need a car modified so an 8-year-old could see over the dash and reach the pedals. And preferably unable to go over 20 mph either, since that's the only way to limit the damage/injury done if the kid runs into a tree.
I was driving at 14. No training, no lessons I just knew I could do it after watching countless others drive all my life. Within minutes of stealing my Mothers Camry I was fine...I then graduated to stealing my Fathers Caddy. 221 inches of pure American luxury.
Edsel Ford, a gift from his father Henry Ford, got his own car at 8 year of age and drove himself to and from school with it, with the absence of a legal minimum driving age. And he spent hours tinkering in the workshop his father equipped for him, filling his schoolbooks with drawings of cars.
Hey! What's wrong with that!!!
And by age 10? Driving from Dearborn into Detroit to have lunch with his father?
Source: Ford, The Men and the Machine by Robert Lacey
Then is a LOT different from now.
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