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Some interesting points, but I think robotic cars will/would be a bigger enabler for exurbs than for actual city dwelling. Get yourself some acreage at the edge

Some interesting points, but I think robotic cars will/would be a bigger enabler for exurbs than for actual city dwelling. Get yourself some acreage at the edge of some teeming metropolis, have 60-90 minutes of uninterrupted time each way in your little cocoon to do as you please, have face time in the office once you get there. Use the commute time to telecommute and shorten (or extend!) your in-office work day, or spend it pursuing solitary leisure activities and work a normal-length day at the office. This would be awesome.

cpeterso 15y ago
All this talk about robotic cars carrying people long distances reminds me of Robert Heinlein's short story "The Roads Must Roll". Huge, underground moving sidewalks running at 100 mph replace highways and railways as the dominant transportation method in the United States. https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/The_Roads_Must_Roll https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/The_Roads_Mus...
- hugh3 15y ago
  Interesting, I'd always thought that idea was due to Asimov in The Caves of Steel, but apparently the Heinlein predates the Asimov by 14 years. Unfortunately, fast-moving underground moving sidewalks sound like an incredible waste of energy.
  - stretchwithme 15y ago
    or tiny gears that only move when vehicles arrive and mesh with the bottom of them, carrying them along. Would be nice to expend only the energy required to move people and things and anything needed to take care of them (safety systems)
RyanMcGreal 15y ago
You still have to power the thing. Declining oil production and the limitations of battery power are going to be a severe limiting factor that will influence the way we roll out self-driving automobiles.
- jerf 15y ago
  Fleets of self-driving vehicles nearly eliminate the problems with battery power; they can easily schedule when they need to return to the station to swap out their battery packs for fresh ones. I still think technology is winning the resource depletion race, even if we ignore the fact that it's really starting to look like oil production isn't actually near the end of its road yet. And if we don't ignore that, the likelihood that gas (or more broadly "energy") will just be "too expensive" for people to want to jaunt about anytime in the next 20 years seems to be decreasing rather than increasing. A great deal of our current apparent shortages of various things are 100% self-imposed.
- stretchwithme 15y ago
  Presumably a robot could also connect to overhead or embedded wires, reducing the size of batteries to that needed for areas without that infrastructure. Buses in SF run totally with overhead wires. You see the drivers having to reconnect to them when they pop out.

cpeterso 15y ago

All this talk about robotic cars carrying people long distances reminds me of Robert Heinlein's short story "The Roads Must Roll". Huge, underground moving sidewalks running at 100 mph replace highways and railways as the dominant transportation method in the United States. https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/The_Roads_Must_Roll https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/The_Roads_Mus...

hugh3 15y ago
Interesting, I'd always thought that idea was due to Asimov in The Caves of Steel, but apparently the Heinlein predates the Asimov by 14 years. Unfortunately, fast-moving underground moving sidewalks sound like an incredible waste of energy.
- stretchwithme 15y ago
  or tiny gears that only move when vehicles arrive and mesh with the bottom of them, carrying them along. Would be nice to expend only the energy required to move people and things and anything needed to take care of them (safety systems)

RyanMcGreal 15y ago

You still have to power the thing. Declining oil production and the limitations of battery power are going to be a severe limiting factor that will influence the way we roll out self-driving automobiles.

jerf 15y ago
Fleets of self-driving vehicles nearly eliminate the problems with battery power; they can easily schedule when they need to return to the station to swap out their battery packs for fresh ones. I still think technology is winning the resource depletion race, even if we ignore the fact that it's really starting to look like oil production isn't actually near the end of its road yet. And if we don't ignore that, the likelihood that gas (or more broadly "energy") will just be "too expensive" for people to want to jaunt about anytime in the next 20 years seems to be decreasing rather than increasing. A great deal of our current apparent shortages of various things are 100% self-imposed.
stretchwithme 15y ago
Presumably a robot could also connect to overhead or embedded wires, reducing the size of batteries to that needed for areas without that infrastructure. Buses in SF run totally with overhead wires. You see the drivers having to reconnect to them when they pop out.