It was the fear of leaving the familiar grounds of one's comfort zone that transformed the detached single family home. A few hundred years after the car first made it's debut in American culture, people spent so much time in their automobiles, they literally began to live out of them. The suburban McMansion transformed its formal living rooms, finished basements, and rooms within rooms, into a dizzying series of garages, driveways, and automatically opening and closing overhead doors. The house became the mother ship and the automobiles became plug-in, portable bedrooms on wheels complete with wardrobes and mini fridges. In the morning each family member would unplug and pull out of their garage to go about their daily business and at night would pull in again, the garage door closing out the uncomfortable world behind them.
The automobile was a portable personal hospice. And as long as one went everywhere they needed to go in their car, they would never be far from comfort and security.