ESSAY DRIVERLESS IN

ESSAY DRIVERLESS IN THE CITY FROM AUTOMATED ROAD RAGE RELIEF TO BUZZING BOD PODS, SMART TECHNOLOGY WILL CHANGE EVERYTHING WE KNOW ABOUT LIFE IN THE CITY WORDS: Olivia Solon Earlier this month, I took a trip in a driverless car made by a Silicon Valley start-up. Despite the vehicle’s autonomous capabilities, the creator hadn’t yet got hold of the necessary paperwork to relinquish control to the enormous computer in the trunk.. And so my driverless car had a driver. It was an odd case of bureaucracy one, technology nil. I did, however, get to watch the infotainment screen show the car’s ‘brain’ in action – the artificially intelligent vision system that was detecting and categorizing objects around it while planning the optimal route. Meanwhile, my own brain had some time to reflect on the city of the future, and how new innovations and technology can make living in it smarter, greener and easier. There is no nuisance that unites city dwellers as effectively and democratically as traffic. It doesn’t matter if you’re a billionaire or a busboy, in a limo or a taxi, you will still find yourself bumper to bumper at rush hour, wishing you could teleport. Unfortunately, scientists have only managed to transfer single atoms across their laboratories, so it’s going to be a long wait until teleportation is possible. Until then, we’ll have to improvise with other approaches for making mass transportation more bearable. Smart technology embedded throughout the vehicle and connected to the internet could help ease some of the stress of being in transit by detecting and mitigating road rage. Imagine sensors for monitoring heart rate and sweat through the steering wheel. “You appear to be veinpoppingly frustrated,” the car would say with soothing tones, as a robotic arm starts gently stroking your hair. “How about we take a 20-minute break? I’ve ordered you a non-fat almond-caramel frappuccino from the next coffee shop. We’ll be there in five minutes.” Upon arrival, the navigation system would refer to a database of real-time parking availability to take you straight to the nearest empty space. Hulk rage avoided. As technology improves, I look forward to driver assistants evolving into autonomous valet services. Simply roll up at your destination, get out and the car will head off on its own. Never again will you need to make yourself dizzy scouring a multi-story parking lot trying to find a space. Nor will you experience the anxiety of trying to squeeze into a tight parallel parking spot. When you’re ready to hit the road again, you can whip out your cell to summon your obedient automobile. The ultimate aim, however, is full autonomy. Fleets of electric self-driving cars – provided they can jump through the necessary regulatory hoops – offer a laundry list of tantalizing benefits, from improved traffic flow (vehicles can move in unison, more closely together) to fewer accidents. The design of vehicles will change dramatically, too. Just as the first automobiles followed the form of the horse carriage, the current generation of autonomous vehicles mimics their human-driven counterparts. Their form has been dictated by strict safety standards that will be less relevant when human error, which plays a part in more than 90 % of collisions, is removed entirely from the equation. As we become accustomed to being chauffeured around by robots, we’ll see that change. The steering wheel and brake pedals will go, and a variety of shapes, sizes and configurations will emerge as we come up with ways to fill transit time “A word of warning from our automated future: You will no longer have any excuse for being late” more productively. There will be pods for meeting, dating and dining as you zip around cities. There might be vehicles for working out (bod pods), hanging with your besties (squad pods) and lounging in a hot tub with a bottle of bubbly (hot pods). When you can order a driverless car within minutes on demand, you won’t need your garage as you will no longer have to maintain and store your own vehicle. Instead, you can rent your garage out to start-ups or inventors in return for a small slice of equity. Many of today’s top companies all started in garages, so just think of the innovation that will take place when the car no longer takes up such premium real estate for tinkering. A word of warning from our automated future: You will no longer have any excuse for being late. Mass tardiness was a contagion spread through human contact with cell phones. Honoring appointments became less pressing when you could send a quick “Sorry babe, running late. Traffic sucks :(.” In an age of predictable traffic flow such excuses wear thin. Instead you’ll have to appeal to new ethical dilemmas arising from the clash between new technology and nature: “There in 10. My auto pod couldn’t decide between hitting a flock of birds or a squirrel, so had to wait for it to make up its mind. Hope to be back up and rolling in a few.” 70 THE JAGUAR

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