Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

Automobility’s AI Revolution

—

by

James A. Bacon
in ,

Automobiles have been around for more than years. Styles have changed, safety has improved and the rides are more comfortable, but functionally the vehicles are still the same as they were in Henry Ford’s time — horseless carriages. But automobiles are undergoing a metamorphosis that will make them something quite different — not just a passive instrument at the driver’s command but a vehicle embedded with communications and intelligence.

Writes ITS International:

From the perspective of the driving experience, traveler infor­mation such as navigation, weather, traffic, gas prices and parking information make practical sense. Infotainment, such as news, sports scores and streaming music, and messaging such as email, Twitter and Facebook are all important content that can be targeted to en­hance the driving experience as well.

There is some debate as to how much interactivity the driver can safely engage in while behind the wheel. But that issue may become moot if driverless cars ever become the norm.

Equipping automobiles with sensors and Artificial Intelligence will give them an extraordinary edge in the ongoing competition with other modes of transportation. Not everyone will be able to afford the new breed of smart car, but life will change for those who can. Any paradigm for smart growth that fails to take automobiles’ AI revolution into account may quickly find itself behind the times.

I don’t pretend to know where it’s all going. But I am pretty sure it’s something we have to watch very closely.

— JAB

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3 responses to “Automobility’s AI Revolution”

  1. Darrell Avatar
    Darrell

    WOW! A cable bill for cars. Yeah, that’s really smart.

  2. larryg Avatar
    larryg

    pay-per-use – easy as pie. require cars to have license plates and each plate is a transponder and the license plate links to an account that is tied to the car that the plate is registered to.

    stolen plate? no problem.. the “readers” will instantly report the whereabouts to the police.

    how to do this?

    easy as pie.

    McD should offered his “abortion” of a proposal as a temporary bridge to this technology with some money in it to implement it.

    out-of-state? No problem. Give them the option of a windshield transponder – either an existing one that is on a national network or they can get one at any service station or their license plate will be read and a bill sent. If they fail to pay – the next time they show up their whereabouts will be detected and reported to police who will pull them over to discuss their bill paying behavior.

    If McD had done this or something like it – the reaction from the right would have been more muted, the owners of hybrids would have had to continue to pay their fair share of highway use, and the user-pays paradigm would have survived undamaged.

  3. larryg Avatar
    larryg

    oh I forgot.. rest areas would have license plate readers to catch those who have not paid their tolls and perhaps exit ramps license plate readers.

    the only folks to escape paying their tolls will have to have their own restrooms and food on board their vehicles.

    😉

    these technologies are not future – they all exist right now and are in use right now.

    another option – might be – to pay by mobile phone if you register your phone with the toll collection folks. There would be a free app for you to download and arrange payment then your cell phone would become your virtual transponder. this technology is also here … you can now pay your Home Depot purchase with your phone via PayPal. Why not allow that in toll collection?

    and he’s the best part of this – no tax on gasoline. People traveling through Va would quickly deduce that while they were paying for tolls, they would be paying 10-20 less per gallon for fuel – so people would be waiting to get to Virginia to buy gas which means other purchases also while they are getting gas.

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