"By the end of the decade, autonomous cars and humanoid robots will not even be worth mentioning. Bigger and better things will be in the offing. As technology starts to spiral faster and faster, so will the changes which will be foisted upon us. Will this be the Brave New World we have been warned about? Or the Golden Age of America that President Trump has promised. Whatever you want to call it, it is now here."
If you have the guts to visit Minneapolis, and see some stranger looking cars, guess what they are? The advance team from the company called Waymo. Wait - what are you saying? Is Waymo here right now? Nope - but they are scheduled to be this year. The advance team is only gathering data and information on the Minneapolis roads.
Does Waymo have enough money to test market all of the cities it wants too? Oh, yes. Deep, deep pockets. Waymo is owned by Alphabet Inc, the parent company of Google. Even though Elon Musk is also going to be promoting the Tesla Cybercab and Robovan, more driverless cars, it seems right now that Waymo is getting all the buzz. Even though Waymo has the jump on Tesla, Elon wants to launch his driverless offerings in 2027 - next year.
For Waymo to launch in a northern city like Minneapolis is a big deal. Why? I will now use a four-letter word. Snow. How in the world will this car, with no human brain or remembered foul weather driving skills, do in four inches of partly cloudy? Will it just freeze (literally and figuratively) like the Waymo did in another city last month? Will it plow into a snowbank and just stay there? To me, to find out if these autonomous cars are worth their salt, they should be test driven in ONLY northern cities. Why? If they can do well here, they can do well anywhere.
The first time many of us see a driverless car on the road, it will be a novelty. Soon, they will be commonplace. The same will go for humanoid robots. First a novelty, then in a couple of years, they will be all over the place. Maybe even in your home. Or in my case (now that I am getting older) - doing my yardwork and taking care of my driveway after a snowfall.
By the end of the decade, autonomous cars and humanoid robots will not even be worth mentioning. Bigger and better things will be in the offing. As technology starts to spiral faster and faster, so will the changes which will be foisted upon us. Will this be the Brave New World we have been warned about? Or the Golden Age of America that President Trump has promised. Whatever you want to call it, it is now here.
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