If you live within 1 mile of a grocery store you could easily walk, and you don’t need anything else on a regular basis. Use a bicycle and 5 miles becomes just as easy. People lived thousands of years without cars. The problem is our cities are built around cars, and they’re built poorly because of it.
I too recently watched this film for the first time. I didn’t like it at all. The shock factor with HAL maybe kept people interested back then but it’s a almost common theme today. I think Kubrick is overrated.