The well-worn saying is that nothing in this world is certain except death and taxes.
But I say that nothing in this world is certain except death, taxes and change.
Change is painful, exciting, visceral and necessary. And our commute is about to radically change.
There are many efficiencies to be gained via the optimization of transportation. Smart cities, combined with autonomous vehicles, will make our lives fundamentally better. As autonomous vehicles gain access to larger data sets, they will be able to make decisions that a human simply cannot make. Even better? They won’t suffer from fatigue. Your autonomous vehicle won’t succumb to a food coma from that spicy ahi bento it had for lunch. Your autonomous vehicle doesn’t suffer from road rage. It doesn’t get angry. It doesn’t mind following the car that happens to be driving Miss Daisy as long as that’s the optimal route. And its eyesight and reflexes won’t diminish over time.
Infinitely exciting opportunities abound for industries to effloresce around autonomous vehicle transportation. What might we do with all this newfound idle time? The obvious includes media consumption. In-car Starbucks. Entertainment. Boring.
I see the convergence of autonomous vehicles and digital assistants. My autonomous vehicle will know me better than my cat. It will be the physical manifestation of my digital assistant. Siri on wheels. Based on the current weather conditions, traffic and my current mood, it will drive me on a scenic route with the highest likelihood of rainbows because it knows I love rainbows. Or it will drive me on a route with the highest amount of shower trees in bloom because it knows I’ve “liked” photos of shower trees recently on Instagram. And not just in bloom, but in my favorite white variant.
Always connected, it will signal ahead when I’m running late. It will call my doctor’s office with an updated time of arrival. It will contact my gym to reserve my favorite treadmill as we drive there. And as it knows I’ve forgotten my towel and shoes (leveraging Bluetooth shoe sensors), it will request a rental in my size and preferred color. Oh, and it will pay for my towel fee in advance. The retail experience of the future will be nothing more than the amalgamation of drive-through services. Retail automation at its finest.
Imagine the efficiencies gained when an autonomous vehicle picks up your dry cleaning, groceries, visits the pharmacy, and then picks you up at the end of the day. Remember, autonomous vehicles do not require human passengers.
Convenience, born from ubiquitous connectivity, infinite data and artificial intelligence.
At Mid-Pacific we recognize the importance of autonomous vehicle technology. We are dedicated to ensuring our students learn and understand these technologies from various perspectives — from discovering the language of coding to understanding the ethics of artificial intelligence and its real-world, entirely human applications. It is important that our students are aware of the societal impacts of these technologies while also learning how to be leaders and innovators in these exciting new fields.
Rather than worry, we should embrace the future that autonomous vehicles will bring. We should imagine ourselves on a bridge between the world of human-driven vehicles and the world of self-driving ones. As we travel across this bridge, let’s blow a kiss into the wind of change. Wave. Say “thank you” with heartfelt gratitude. If not for all the industries that came before, if not for the coalescing of disparate technological innovations at this very moment in time, if not for the bravery to live on the cutting edge, we wouldn’t be on the verge of this revolutionary milestone in human travel.
Brian Dote is chief innovation officer at Mid-Pacific Institute and founder of Tapiki. Reach him at brian@tapiki.com.
