Last October it was news that the Colorado Department of Transportation announced that they were participating in an experimental use of a driverless truck. You can read all about it by clicking this link:
http://www.denverpost.com/2017/06/29/self-driving-beer-truck-world-record/
From time to time I have interesting conversations with with Lyft riders about how I feel about the possibility of being replaced by SIRI. So it was, this week as I took Tim off to meet a friend at a bar in LODO. He represents a demographic that no longer owns a car. “I sold my car. I figured that by what I save in parking, depreciation, gas, repairs, insurance and hassles, I come out ahead using Lyft”. I shared that this was an oft told story. About that time a cab drove by. “I wonder how long cabs will be around”? he asked. “As one of my recent riders said, ‘soon taxi cabs will be like phone booths’ ” I replied.
He asked me “How do you feel about driverless cars”? “Well, since I have started driving for Lyft I have given it a lot of thought. I think they are inevitable. The technology is there now, it really is all of the legal issues that we have to work through. I gave a ride a few months ago to a young man who is finishing law school. He is focusing on transportation law. He raised all kinds of interesting scenarios. If there is an accident who is responsible? It goes on and on”. He then said “I have no doubt if we had all driverless cars the traffic would move in a much more expedient manner”. “I agree, but as my good friend Wayne says,‘I am still waiting for my George Jetson Jet Pack’”. He laughed, “I would only get that reference because I used to watch the ‘old cartoons’ on the Cartoon Network”.
So, in a little over a month I get to celebrate my 50th Pueblo East High School Reunion. I will be driving to Pueblo in a car I own. I find myself living in the midst of a MEGADIGM shift. We started high school right after the Kennedy assassination. It was Beach Boys and the Beatles. The greatest car you could own was a ’57 Chevrolet. You had to get up and walk to the TV to change the channel, as there was no such thing as a remote control. I am by nature an optimist. For as many reasons one can name to fear the future, I am still hopeful. I confess, I don’t really have a clue as to what the future holds. 15 years from now I’ll be 83. The idea that I push a button and some totally electric car pulls up to drive me off to a Rockies game by myself…makes me feel empty.
So, I think that I will even pay a little extra for a conversation with a complete stranger who has never seen a phone both or a taxi cab.
Onward and Upward,
Mark
Lyfting Me Up 