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08/22/2014

My Thoughts

(Written in 2014)

Will there be a day when most cars are self driven and the person behind the wheel is a minority.

Google is currently developing the self driving car. It sounds cool and certainly could reduce accidents, as it communicates with vehicles around it, as it considers traffic patterns miles ahead along it's planned route, as well as allowing the passengers to Text or work while they are in transit, but it could also greatly change the reach of the law.

Think about it. Today the term, 'let me Google that', means that you want to find out about something or someone. I've even Googled myself to see what's out there, there is absolutely nothing out there under my name. So it's not a big stretch to merge the Google car with the Google search engine to a point that, when a person enters a Google car, like a current taxi, a camera in the cab takes a picture of the passenger and Google's them. Upon the results it either, drives them straight to the police station because they have an outstanding warrant, or refuses to take them to their destination because they are registered sex offender or even more focused because they are too religious or are supporters of the 'wrong' political party. Who will decide?

Maybe we are in the Wild-West of driving and we'll talk about how humans had complete control to go as fast as their car could drive, swerving as they liked from lane to lane, causing road rage and accidents. In the civilized future they'll be aghast at such thoughts and cars will loose their status.

Then a little further in the future the same will be said of the flying or droid taxi. Instead of sinking money into paved roads and salt in the winter and cement patches and overpasses and exit ramps and traffic lights, parking lots, all road traffic will give way to the droid that carries people from point to point. Amazon will start this process with it's droid package delivery system but once that's perfected it won't be long before taxi companies are building bigger droids that carry people are used. Those will also take you if you are 'OK'. But who will say what's OK.

Think about that.

Love,
Dad

Edit 2016: It seems writers of Home read this blog post as the flying cars used by the Boov have user verification for outstanding warrants and stop running if a fugitive is identified.