The coming Googletopia
I’ve been thinking about the Daily Star’s recent article about the robotic cars that Google has invented. Apparently Google has already navigated robotic trucks across the Golden Gate Bridge and around Lake Tahoe, and the day is not that far off that we start seeing these things on our highways.
I am guessing it will take a little while for Americans to give up personal driving, but I think they will do it once they figure out that having a robotic car is like having a personal limousine. And I am sure companies like Wal-Mart will be very early adopters of robotic 18-wheelers.
This got me to thinking about how many people’s jobs rely on the fact that, currently, we have to drive our cars ourselves. Obviously, commercial truck drivers and cab drivers will see their jobs disappear. But so will personal injury lawyers like myself, because robotic cars won’t drive negligently. (And yes I think this is a good thing.)
How about the auto insurance industry? Robotic cars don’t ever collide.
Let’s not leave out my comrades who represent people accused of DUI. And the State Police — what use will there be for most of them? Traffic court? Gone. Same with traffic school. EMTs and ambulance drivers? They are going to lose business too. The daily slaughter we currently experience on our highways will diminish tremendously, so hospital employees will be in less demand as well.
You know that garbage truck that comes by every week? It will be driven by a robot.
There will be no person in the front of the UPS truck.
There will no longer be lines at the Department of Motor Vehicles, because there won’t be any need for a driver’s license, or driver’s test.
Auto body shops will vanish, and towing companies will struggle too. People’s cars will still break down of course, but not because they drove off the road.
Robotic cars can gas themselves up on their own (if they aren’t, God help us, electric by then) so gas stations will be dramatically different things, and there will be many fewer of them.
And people will be willing to accept longer commutes, of course, because they can spend all that time on Facebook or even sleeping. I predict this will bring about cars that are bigger, not smaller, and more urban sprawl.
The more I think about this, the more I see robotic cars dramatically transforming our civilization. Which is another way of seeing just how central the car is to our civilization already.
–Erik Ryberg
January 28th, 2013 at 1:52 am
Don’t worry Erik, there will be plenty of jobs for people to design, build, service, and maintain a fleet of robot cars. Also humans have an innate ability to injure each other, so I’m sure we’ll still need accident lawyers for centuries to come.
February 25th, 2013 at 1:17 pm
At least the delivery end of UPS will still need some people to get from truck to end point. There will be vast changes.
Also the infrastructure. No stop signs or traffic signals. Intersections and cars will communicate to optimize the flow. I’ve seen some models of intersections. The hard part will be the change over. I think there will be more smaller cars and vehicle sharing. Especially i the cities. call for a car the size you need. Would also cut down on parking requirements.
April 7th, 2013 at 5:24 pm
How reliably do these robot cars stop to avoid collision and how severely will they apply the brakes if, say, you jump out in front of one? I’m imagining cyclists losing fear of cars and just cutting them off as we please…since you know they’ll just stop….
I’m kind of liking that part of the vision.
They also will end up being even more costly to repair…but when you factor in the decrease in insurance etc, maybe worth it.
I drive a 22 year old car…it’s going to take a good long while before the majority of cars on the road are robotic. Cell phones took 20 years to really get off the ground, and they skyrocketed in part because they are small and cheap to make.
I’m not holding my breath on this change, transforming though it will be.