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"…we store information differently, reading a science fiction story, to make it make sense."
- Samuel R. Delany
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| Automatobile | ||
| An autonomous private car. |
We ordinarily think about autonomous cars as if they were characterless machines, like an elevator. Not Isaac Asimov.
| I heard Sally coming up behind me and I put out my hand. She slid right into it and the feel of the hard, glossy enamel of her fender was warm in my palm. "A nice automatobile," said Gellhorn.
 (Automatobile from 'Sally' by Isaac Asimov) That's one way of putting it. Sally was a 2045 convertible with a Hennis-Carleton positronic motor and an Armat chassis. She had the cleanest, finest lines I've ever seen on any model, bar none. For five years, she'd been my favorite, and I'd put everything into her I could dream up. In all that time, there'd never been a human being behind her wheel. Not once. "Sally," I said, patting her gently, "meet Mr. Gellhorn." Sally's cylinder-purr keyed up a little. I listened carefully for any knocking. Lately, I'd been hearing motor-knock in almost all the cars and changing the gasoline hadn't done a bit of good. Sally was as smooth as her paint job this time, however. |
| Technovelgy from Sally,
by Isaac Asimov. Published by Fantastic in 1953 Additional resources -
|
Compare to the automatic control car from Imperial Earth (1976) by Arthur C. Clarke, and the automatic automobile from David H. Keller's 1935 story The Living Machine and the Camden Speedster from Robert Heinlein's serialized 1941 novel Methuselah's Children.
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| The 'Last Mile' In China Crowded With Delivery Robots |
| Musk Idea Of Cars Talking To Each Other Predicted 70 Years Ago |
| Waymo And Tesla 'Autonomous Cabs' Are Piloted By Remote Drivers |
| Maybe It's Too Soon To Require Autonomous Mode |
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'The observation vehicle was of that peculiar variety used in conveying a large number of people across rough terrain.'
'The real border was defended by... a swarm of quasi-independent aerostats.'
'I ... set my automatic astronomical instruments to searching for a habitable planet.'
'...haven't you a section of the factory where only robot labor is employed?'
'... oblongs were all over the floor and surfaces.'
