The final test for AV's









The First Soccer Mom

Putting children in a car alone and sending them to a destination will be the ultimate test of our confidence in driverless technology, and parents are not known to be first adopters. But mobility is an ever more essential component of child rearing and puts ever greater demands on parents, especially mothers.

Technology will never bring an end to gender issues, but it certainly can add to the confusion. Driving kids around may not approach hand-washing clothes for sheer drudgery (even men will do the driving when asked),  but it is still a job that falls primarily to women. And we shouldn't underestimate the effect this task has on gender equality, and the difficulty it creates for a significant number of parents to hold full time positions or advance a careers.

Even before driverless systems become ubiquitous, safer streets may result in a renaissance of neighborhood children at play. Even a moderately efficient system would result in fewer cars cutting through neighborhoods, and semi-autonomous safety features would diminish pedestrian accidents.

It's  fairly easy to see how such a system would have to function, with driverless vehicles returning kids to their parents if trusted parties are not verifiably at their destination. Safety would have to be absolute, perhaps with child occupied vehicles given privileged right of way and extended safety buffers.

Of course, no reason the parents can't still ride along......


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Introduction to Driverless Vehicles and their eventual role in a sustainable transportation system.

Image
INTRODUCTION Although driverless vehicles are already on the road, it will be 10 to 20 years before we see substantial impact on transportation in general, and sustainability in particular. Yet even with this extended time frame it’s a subject that should receive attention from the sustainable transportation community. Because the technology that supports autonomous vehicles has the potential to have a profound impact on how we move goods and people throughout the developed world its not too early to start considering how to take advantage of opportunities the technology may present as well as anticipate possible negative outcomes. The paper includes an overview of the present state of affairs, an assessment of potential impacts on sustainability, and a historical perspective on changes in transportation and what they suggest about the road ahead.  The endless twenty years Before enrolling in the Master's Degree Program in Sustainable Transportation at the University of
Read more

2019 Transportation Conference in Zilina Slovakia

Image
I recently spoke about autonomous vehicles at a transportation conference in Zilina, Slovakia.  Most would be hard pressed to pinpoint this region on a map, and fewer yet would predict it to be a prominent forum for those looking to edge the world farther towards a truly driverless system.  However:   Driverless cars are only a part - a necessary part - of this profound change in our transportation infrastructure. And this precise truth is the topic I chose to address, finding myself one of many that sensed the softening attitudes toward truly innovative and, in many ways, radical ideas - the sort that is only given heed when a general instability, or uncertainty, as to the direction of technology and history develops. I invite you to read some of the speculation I brought with myself to Slovakia, in hopes that those aforementioned softening attitudes would indeed make way for greater consideration of the driverless road.       In order to get a handle on this cha
Read more

Presenting ACCTOR

Image
It is fast approaching the end of the beginning of driverless cars and time to manage the beginning of the end of the road as we have known it.  ACCTOR is a company that is making connections between innovators and stakeholders, academics and regulators, and between government and the public. It's a long road ahead with significant opportunities and dangers. ACCTOR is committed to developing relationships that will help unlock the potentials of the open road.  Driverless vehicles, a technology that has always been 20 years away is about to reveal its true potential. It won't happen overnight, and no one knows what is around the next corner, but we will all be a part of a future without the car as we have known it. Please join our company ACCTOR as it follows this  path, and helps to support a new and more open road.
Read more