[Hatman]

An article by Newsweek that I liked:
Google, You Can Drive My Car
http://www.newsweek.com/2014/06/20/g...ar-254475.html

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When a radical new technology arrives, at first we tend to think of it as a modification of an existing technology. Put a motor on a four-wheel chassis and all you’ve got is a carriage that doesn’t require a horse, right? Television seemed like radio with pictures. Cellphones seemed like telephones that could move around. Yet in each case, the new item opened up possibilities no one expected. Cars led to suburbs and shopping malls. Cellphones became pocket computers that are changing dating, banking, eating and just about everything else.

The first surge of autonomous vehicles probably won’t even carry humans. One of the most intense emerging battle zones in retail is same-day, nearly instant delivery—Wal-Mart and other brick-and-mortar retailers think they can fight Amazon by delivering orders from local stores in an hour or two. Amazon fired a shot back by saying it is working on delivery by drones that will land a package on your doorstep.

But the idea of drone delivery is wishful thinking, like a hangover-less bourbon. “The laws of physics still apply,” says Paul Saffo of Foresight at Discern Analytics. He doesn’t see how drones could ever carry enough packages to make the economics work, not to mention all the other attending problems. Who’s liable if the family dog attacks a drone, or when a sudden rain makes drones short out and drop pizzas on unsuspecting pedestrians?

What makes more sense for this upcoming battle? Autonomous vehicles built to drive up to your door with a package or food order and text you to come out and get it. To do that job, the vehicle doesn’t have to look like anything we’ve seen before. Throw out seats or headroom for a human. Make the things electric. Design something unique—maybe a cross between a U-Haul trailer and R2-D2. In a couple of decades, they will be whizzing all over city streets.
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