Comments on: How I Learned to Stop Worrying, and Love… “Robotic” Cars http://garrygolden.net/2007/11/30/how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-the%e2%80%a6-%e2%80%9crobot%e2%80%9d-cars/ ---A Futurist looks at changes ahead, and reasons to be hopeful------- Thu, 28 Aug 2008 10:35:08 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.1 By: Jeremy http://garrygolden.net/2007/11/30/how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-the%e2%80%a6-%e2%80%9crobot%e2%80%9d-cars/#comment-838 Jeremy Mon, 10 Dec 2007 08:22:46 +0000 http://garrygolden.net/2007/11/30/how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-the%e2%80%a6-%e2%80%9crobot%e2%80%9d-cars/#comment-838 When I worked on one of the grand challenge teams, we collectively day dreamed about future applications. Here are some of them: 1. Long distance travel, just as you mentioned. I want to emphasize that I think this is a major threat to domestic air travel. I would no longer fly domestically if I could have my personal car drive me to a distant city. Besides intercontinental travel, what advantages do airplanes offer over autonomous cars? 2. Autonomous vehicles could allow shipping companies (UPS, USPS, FedEx, DHL) to shift away from the "hub and spoke" architecture and use more of a "mesh network" for package delivery. I'm not really sure what advantage this could give, but it would be technologically possible. 3. The drudgery of going to the store for any given reason could be automated. Have your vehicle pick up your groceries in the middle of the night. Have your grocery order automated, so food just shows up when you need it. This also applies to things you now get delivered by human drivers. 4. Reduce parking congestion. If your car can drop you off, say, at a University of Texas football game and then go park 5 miles away, you avoid the problems of parking congestion. It'll pick you up after the game. 5. Lease your car out when you're not using it, such as overnight or during the work day. Many cars go unused for much of the day, which is a resource waiting to be harnessed. It could be for charity, like "Folding at Home" which capitalizes on unused CPU cycles on your home computer. It could also be the way an entrepreneur transports 1,000 tons of goods in one night without having to purchase trucks or hire drivers. 6. Suddenly everyone, including kids, oldsters, invalids, dogs, cats and lumps of coal have transportation. Where do they want to go? 7. Drunks finally have reliable transit! Woo hoo! Lastly, I want to make a few things clear: 1. People do not like to drive. You will not miss driving when it's gone. 2. Robotic drivers are safer than human drivers. By several orders of magnitude. When I worked on one of the grand challenge teams, we collectively day dreamed about future applications. Here are some of them:

1. Long distance travel, just as you mentioned. I want to emphasize that I think this is a major threat to domestic air travel. I would no longer fly domestically if I could have my personal car drive me to a distant city. Besides intercontinental travel, what advantages do airplanes offer over autonomous cars?

2. Autonomous vehicles could allow shipping companies (UPS, USPS, FedEx, DHL) to shift away from the “hub and spoke” architecture and use more of a “mesh network” for package delivery. I’m not really sure what advantage this could give, but it would be technologically possible.

3. The drudgery of going to the store for any given reason could be automated. Have your vehicle pick up your groceries in the middle of the night. Have your grocery order automated, so food just shows up when you need it. This also applies to things you now get delivered by human drivers.

4. Reduce parking congestion. If your car can drop you off, say, at a University of Texas football game and then go park 5 miles away, you avoid the problems of parking congestion. It’ll pick you up after the game.

5. Lease your car out when you’re not using it, such as overnight or during the work day. Many cars go unused for much of the day, which is a resource waiting to be harnessed. It could be for charity, like “Folding at Home” which capitalizes on unused CPU cycles on your home computer. It could also be the way an entrepreneur transports 1,000 tons of goods in one night without having to purchase trucks or hire drivers.

6. Suddenly everyone, including kids, oldsters, invalids, dogs, cats and lumps of coal have transportation. Where do they want to go?

7. Drunks finally have reliable transit! Woo hoo!

Lastly, I want to make a few things clear:

1. People do not like to drive. You will not miss driving when it’s gone.

2. Robotic drivers are safer than human drivers. By several orders of magnitude.

]]> By: golden14 http://garrygolden.net/2007/11/30/how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-the%e2%80%a6-%e2%80%9crobot%e2%80%9d-cars/#comment-845 golden14 Mon, 10 Dec 2007 18:03:34 +0000 http://garrygolden.net/2007/11/30/how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-the%e2%80%a6-%e2%80%9crobot%e2%80%9d-cars/#comment-845 Jeremy, Thanks for the note--- agreed on every single point. Especially the threat to domestic air travel! And its potential disruption with package delivery and freight. And then there are applications like trash pick (one person in truck, one working; vs. two working!) And i imagine smaller autonomous systems going around hospital floors, et al will be wealth creators! cheers- Garry Jeremy,
Thanks for the note— agreed on every single point. Especially the threat to domestic air travel! And its potential disruption with package delivery and freight. And then there are applications like trash pick (one person in truck, one working; vs. two working!) And i imagine smaller autonomous systems going around hospital floors, et al will be wealth creators! cheers- Garry

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