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RobuCAB Robotic Taxi
RobuCAB is an automated people-moving four-seater developed by a French company. This autonomous vehicle follows the curb to take you around.
(RobuCAB autonomous taxi cab)
RobuCAB makes use of its embedded systems, including a camera to track the curb, and sensors to track distance to the curb, as well as gearing and acceleration. The RobuCAB also can make use of predefined circuits embedded in the pavement.
Leave it to Philip K. Dick to let you know what being in a robot cab is really going to be like in this excerpt from his 1952 short story A Present for Pat:
"Robots have no wives," the driver said. "They are nonsexual. Robots have no friends, either. They are incapable of emotional relationships.""Can robots be fired?"
"Sometimes." The robot drew his cab up before Eric's modest six-room bungalow. "But consider. Robots are frequently melted down and new robots made from the remains. Recall Ibsen's Peer Gynt, the section concerning the Button Molder. The lines clearly anticipate in symbolic form the trauma of robots to come."
"Yeah." The door opened and Eric got out. "I guess we all have our problems."
"Robots have worse problems than anybody." The door shut and the cab zipped off, back down the hill.
Thought you were going to get away from all that driver-drama? Nope.
Via Roland.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 3/14/2008)
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