Whether we like it or not, driverless technology is coming. In a few aspects, this has some positive traits: the disabled and elderly can be mobile without having to rely on degraded abilities to get them from one place to another, and truck driving can become a multitasking, easier way to go, with less reliance on sleep breaks and more time on the road. To be honest…well, we aren’t fans. We get where certain situations can be helped, but for the other 95% of the time, we think that having someone behind the wheel is paramount and that anyone who just doesn’t want to drive due to whatever reason (cough-LAZINESS-cough) can determine the best way to let someone else drive them, via taxi, public transportation, or sled dogs for what we care.
However, public transit is one of the most likely first avenues that will see autonomous driving, and Local Motors…you know, the open-source car company that made the “middle finger to practicality, let’s have fun!” Rally Fighter…is leading the charge with this rolling toaster. Meet “Olli”, LM’s first foray into autonomous vehicles. Olli is a twelve-passenger electric vehicle that has a top speed of 45 miles an hour, enough battery capacity to run for 65 hours before needing a charge, and is equipped with IBM’s “Watson” technology, which is the software program that went on the television game show “Jeopardy!” and cleaned house…think Wikipedia on steroids, a know-it-all that actually does know it all. So when you’re sitting in your little electric-powered cubicle, you can ask for directions, get dinner suggestions, or find out where the nearest bar is, just in case you feel like you need a drink after the ride.
Olli was designed by Edgar Sarmiento, a student who is working towards a Master’s degree in Transportation Design at the Istituto d’Arte Applicata e Design (IAAD) in Torino, Italy. He won the 2015 Local Motors Urban Mobility Challenge, a competition that asked for vehicle designs that would improve urban transit. Sarmiento will receive $2o,000 for the vehicle design rights, and will receive an undisclosed royalty for each Olli sold. Local Motors expects Ollis to cost between $200,000 to $250,000 once the production program is all set and ready to go. For now, Miami-Dade County, Florida looks to be the first testing ground for Olli…you should start to see the rolling briquets on the road later this year.
From Rally Fighters to the all-knowing electric toaster that drives you around…if that doesn’t make you want to crack open a bottle and go for broke, we don’t know what will. It’s not the end of the line for the automobile as we know it, but it’s one step closer. We don’t mean to be rude, Olli, but your voice reminds us of either the Orbit gum lady or the woman who sells Poo-Pourri on YouTube videos, and that quip about the “robot overlords taking over” was not appreciated. Drink up…at least Olli will give you a ride home. She might be a bit judgmental about you being three sheets to the wind, though.
CLICK HERE to hear Olli’s generous attempt to win you over.
Self driving cars are the stuff of science fiction movies. In reality, they are decades or more from being reliable and safe. Problems like snow, worn out marking on the road, unexpected pot holes and such will be big obstacles to these self driving cars. The two biggest things to overcome, lawyers and software. A soon as someone is hurt badly or is killed, the lawyers will swoop in a be a monster financial burden. I’m more worried about the thing having some sort of problem that requires a reboot in the middle of the road. Already BMW has had issues with it’s operating system rendering many functions unusable. I’ll keep my normal car and ride with someone else if I’m drunk thank you. You can keep your blob-like self driver to yourself.
Decades? Not likely. Our government already has an autonomous plane capable of landing on an aircraft carrier without the help of some pesky human. The Japanese have robots looking after the elderly that do a better job than a mouth breather. Google owns multiple robotics firms that can produce bipeds that not only replace members of the working class, but remove them as well.
While the loss of life could slow profit, the zillions of potential dollars to be saved by not having to train, employ, and take care of some whiney, unreliable meatbag is why this technology will be here before we have a chance to say “AHHH!”
Now robotic middle management? That’s a couple decades off.
Kill it with fire!
This looks like it is aimed exclusively at those among us that like to have a drink or three. An interior that could be hosed clean of barf in seconds and no doubt a satnav with the owner’s favourite watering holes programmed into it. All that’s lacking is a built in toilet and a fridge. No doubt some sad sack will work out a way to put an LS into it and then destroy both themselves and this mobile bathroom and do all us gearheads a favour…
Now you have me wanting to get a Google Car prototype and hack it up like this rotary Isetta.
http://www.stanceiseverything.com/2011/12/wtf-friday-rotary-isetta/
Im all for a robot say housemaid or landscaper or something. F,that box car thing though. I think in my lifetime there are going to be roads we cant drive our cars on though.
No one want robot cars. We want cheap robot body work and paint guys.
If cars are going to be driverless, I don’t see how life is worth living anymore.