'Kids born today will never drive,' says Robot Valley champion - Market Business News . . . not only will they not drive, they won't have any interest in all those cars the Boomers have invested so much in, and believe are worth huge sums of money. Longevity will increase dramatically, and people will live much longer more fulfilled lives. Pollution will decline, dramatically. And there will be huge changes to society, culture, and the way we interact that we cannot begin to understand today. More below. At least broadly.
This is obviously incorrect: "My own prediction is that kids born today will never get to drive a car." Just as children today can, and oft do ride horses, or ride on horse drawn carriages, so will children in the future be able to drive cars, and ride in human driven cars. Like the horse, it will likely be only for a lark, but still the human drive car will not disappear. I fully expect that people who like to drive will build many tracks somewhat similar to the Nurburgring track, likely near most mid to large cities, and surround these tracks with hangers to park, protect, and work on their cars. Warm summer days the hanger doors will be open and the cars on display, and there will be all kinds of events related to cars, for car lovers. Nürburgring - Wikipedia "Christensen says he and his colleagues see advancing robotics and automation pushing two trends. One trend will be the return of manufacturing jobs to the United States – primarily from Southeast Asia. The other trend is the displacement of workers as jobs become automated. Christensen predicts there will be fully automated, driverless transportation in the U.S. by 2020 – displacing human truck drivers and taxi drivers." Not much new here, I, and others have been noting these truths for many years now. "Christensen also predicts – as populations in many developed countries get older – that a wave of companion robots will enter the market as health care and home companions. For example, half of Japan’s population is over 50 years old. “We need to help the elderly stay in their homes,” he notes, “And robots can help us get there.” The ideal home care robot should work as a walker and a wheelchair, says Christensen. It should have arms, be able to fetch medication, and perhaps even prepare meals." Again, not much new here, and not very daring a prediction, I continue to believe that implantable devices will quickly come to the fore which will allow the paralyzed to walk, and the old to walk and balance much better. These will be unobtrusive, self contained, implanted, and the batteries rechargeable via a magnetic interface or similar. Separate robotic helpers will be needed but more for the really old, and really infirm, and only if the life extension sciences can't get it right. "The Robot Valley champion predicts, “With autonomous, driverless cars, we can put twice as many vehicles on the road as we have today, and do it without improving the infrastructure.” And at the same time reduce the number of vehicles on the road since freight vehicles will likely begin to operate more and more at night. So, for example, a beer truck in downtown Philly today is a huge truck constantly in conflict with autos, attempting to service bars, restaurants, and grocery stores during the day. In the future, with self drive technology, the vehicles will be able to operate at night, with self operating stocking vehicles the bars, stores, and groceries will be able to be stocked automatically, at night as well, no humans needed. This is not ready today but would change the number of vehicles on the road during daytime substantially. Long haul trucks are set to be operated by robot, within the next few years. Again, there is little reason for these to interfere with other vehicles during peak driving time, and so they will operate mostly at night and during non peak hours. Much of this can be accomplished by moving away from a gas tax to a miles/time of day tax, which will charge according to how many miles are driven times the congestion at the time the vehicle is operated. High congestion would equal high cost, and this would create incentives for more off hour tech improvements designed to smooth peak driving times.
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