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"Science fiction operates a little bit like science itself, in principle. You've got thousands of people exploring ideas, putting forth their own hypotheses. Most of them are dead wrong; a few stand the test of time; everything looks kind of quaint in hind"
- Peter Watts
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| Robot Taxi | ||
| A taxicab with a robotic driver. |
| The sedative calmed him down a trifle; he emerged and flagged down a robot taxi.
"Main Directorate building," he told the driver. "And take your time." "All right, sir or madam," the MacMillan robot answered, adding, "Whatever you say." MacMillans weren't capable of fine discriminations. |
| Technovelgy from Solar Lottery,
by Philip K. Dick. Published by Ace Books in 1955 Additional resources -
|
From Quarry (1956) by Kenneth Bulmer:
See variations on this idea in Larry Niven's bubble cars from World out of Time (1976) or the tin cabbie from James Blish's 1957 novel Cities in Flight. A more recent take can be found in Alan Dean Foster's 2006 novel Sagramanda; see the automated taxi.
On the street again, they peered cautiously uptown. A single robot taxi, cruising in the hope of fares long since dead, passed on silent tires. Beyond it, at the intersection, they saw a streetcar stop, ding its bell, and go on.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Solar Lottery
More Ideas
and Technology by Philip K. Dick
Tech news articles related to Solar Lottery
Tech news articles related to works by Philip K. Dick
Robot Taxi-related
news articles:
- Autonomous Vehicle By Delphi Goes Coast-to-Coast
- Would Robot Taxis Ease Carbon Emissions?
| SpaceX Rocket Shuttle Point-To-Point On Earth |
| CORLEO Robotic Horse Concept Looks Ready To Ride |
| Futuristic Transit Elevated Bus Never Really Worked |
| Japan Automated Cargo Transport |
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Science Fiction
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'...war-balloons, or, as it would be more correct to call them, navigable aerostats.'
'This robot is a creature... It is a manlike being. Therefore, like any other talking, thinking man, he is entitled to a court trial!'
'...small electric motors at the principal joints worked the prosthetic framework by means of steel cables...'
