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Soon, Your Tesla Will Follow You Like A Pet
Tesla founder Elon Musk has sent another majestic tweet to eager users of Tesla Motor Cars.
Car will drive to your phone location & follow you like a pet if you hold down summon button on Tesla app
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 1, 2018
(Tweet from Elon Musk on new Summon feature)
According to the inimitable Musk, the feature will be ready in "~6 weeks", which in Elon Time (tm) means, well, anytime from Christmas through Easter.
Science fiction authors were ready to do something similar decades ago, of course. Philip K. Dick described homotropic devices that sought out people and followed them around in his 1963 novel The Game Players of Titan. In 1963, in Lies, Inc., Dick described the creditor jet balloon, which was capable of "personally hounding" an individual deadbeat consumer.
However, I was thinking of John Brunner's idea from his 1975 blockbuster The Shockwave Rider
From now until his credit expired the machine would carry his bag in its soft plastic jaws and follow him as faithfully as a well-trained hound...
(Read more about the auto porter)
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 11/9/2018)
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Science Fiction
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The New Habitable Zones Include Asimov's Ribbon Worlds
'...there's a narrow belt where the climate is moderate.'
Can One Robot Do Many Tasks?
'... with the Master-operator all you have to do is push one! A remarkable achievement!'
Atlas Robot Makes Uncomfortable Movements
'Not like me. A T-1000, advanced prototype. A mimetic poly-alloy. Liquid metal.'
Boring Company Drills Asimov's Single Vehicle Tunnels
'It was riddled with holes that were the mouths of tunnels.'
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'The massive feet working the pedals, arms and hands flashing and glinting...'
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'There were cubic miles of it, and it glistened like a silvery Christmas tree...'
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'On the chest of drawers something was perched.'
Leader-Follower Autonomous Vehicle Technology
'Jason had been guiding the caravan of cars as usual...'
Golf Ball Test Robot Wears Them Out
"The robot solemnly hit a ball against the wall, picked it up and teed it, hit it again, over and again...'
Boring Company Vegas Loop Like Asimov Said
'There was a wall ahead... It was riddled with holes that were the mouths of tunnels.'
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'...support the interior human structure against Jupiter’s pull.'
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A Beautiful Visualization Of Compact Food
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Bone-Building Drug Evenity Approved
'Compounds devised by the biochemists for the rapid building of bone...'
