“Where does your friend live?,” I asked my son early this summer. The answer was down the block. More specifically the house with the well-kept front lawn mowed by a robot. I had admired the self-guided machine before learning who lived there, and even priced the technology. This droid with a mower blade and other 21st Century robotic applications continue to make life easier for humans while being environmentally friendly, depending on the situation.
By late July the boys spent some of their time together under the shade of our maple tree. One afternoon a few weeks ago my children burst through the front door to report they had seen two white cars with “nobody driving!” When asked for details, my daughter said there were no people in either vehicle, they traveled north one right behind the other and she did not notice any license plates. My son’s friend was also there though he was in their homemade tent at the time and therefore could not corroborate their account.
I did not doubt the story since driverless (robotic) passenger vehicles and even semi-trucks continue to be tested and even put into service in a limited capacity. However, two such state-of-the-art cars driving through Alliance neighborhoods must have been noticed by other people too. If so, a post on Facebook that evening yielded no independent confirmation — and I have heard or read nothing about driverless cars visiting our area.
Anybody, adult or child, can be mistaken of course. The fun part is: what my elementary-age kids told me about is possible. That begs the questions: is it probable?
An article posted on investopedia (by Joe D’allegro and Ebony Howard, June 20, 2021) examines “How Google’s Self-Driving Car Will Change Everything”. More than a decade ago, the article states, Google began their self-driving project in 2009 “with the goal of driving autonomously over ten uninterrupted 100-mile routes.” This project carries on through a company called Waymo. The public has been part of road trials, riding in cars representing several makes and models. On its website, Waymo states the tests have occurred in ten states to date. Attempting to ascertain if the cars were officially driven here I found an online phone listing for Waymo. A company representative did not immediately return my message seeking comment.
If a pair of empty Chrysler Pacificas (which is what my daughter thought they may have been when looking at photos of Waymo’s current fleet) drove through Alliance without incident, that is positive news. I believe state governments should consider letting these robots on the road assuming this technology can be proven as safe or safer than a competent human driver in the coming months and years. Eventually, everybody could ride shotgun.
Driverless cars could help push the movement for greener transportation. I envision a plug-in electric family SUV that allows self or manual driving. After driving the kids to school and parents to their places of work, the vehicle could retrieve pre-ordered groceries and pair with the equally robotic charging station at home to be topped off and back on the road to pick up everyone that afternoon. Ride sharing could decrease the number of new vehicles on the road. A requirement that the driverless models be electric and charged from renewably-produced electricity would cut emissions.
Success balances on whether people are willing to trust their lives to a computer. Even in a galaxy far, far away R2 always rode shotgun.