Robotic Nation Evidence

Robo-Cars Make Cruise Control So Last Century

According to the article: "Industry engineers and executives view [new car automation] as the start of a trend that will play out over the next decade, in which automobiles become increasingly in touch with their surroundings and able to act autonomously.

The article lists a number of new technologies for cars:

• "Mercedes S-Class sedans will even start shutting the sunroof and lifting reclined seats if a collision is deemed likely."
  
• "microprocessors can take control of the most basic driving functions, like steering and braking."
  
• "this year Toyota started selling its Lexus LS430 sedan with radar tucked in the grille. If the car's computer processors sense a collision is imminent, they will cinch up the seat belts, increase the driver's braking pressure and in some cases alter the suspension, moving the car closer to the ground."
  
• "Nissan's Infiniti division said that it would embed a camera on the rearview mirror of its 2005 FX sport utility vehicle. It is part of a system that warns drivers if they drift from their lane, the first such system in the United States. In Japan, Honda sells a similar system that actually steers the car back into a lane if a driver does not heed a warning. "
  
• "For instance, the Ford Freestar minivan weighs anyone who sits in the passenger seat with a flexible plastic scale in the cushion. If a lightweight occupant like a small child is detected in the front passenger seat, the minivan will deactivate the frontal air bag so that it does not lead to an injury upon impact."
  
• "BMW already offers an optional "active steering" system on its 5- and 6-series cars that can override the driver and steer out of trouble."
  
• "General Motors and other companies are also developing transponders that can communicate with other cars to create on-board traffic-snarl warning systems."

This quote is particularly interesting: "Combine [GPS] with radar cruise control, add a lane-changing system and throw in a transponder, or cameras, and pretty soon you could have a car that self-drives itself in the middle of a bunch of conventional cars." This is just 10 or so years away.

Once cars are driving themselves, so are trucks. So are taxis. Etc. Several million people are out of work in very short order. See this post and this post for details.