Science Fiction Dictionary
A  B  C  D  E  F  G  H  I  J  K  L  M  N  O  P  Q  R  S  T  U  V  W  X  Y  Z

 

Tele-Driving Offers Jobs For Tele-Drivers, Not AIs

Tele-driving offers some of the benefits of autonomous cars, without that pesky need to have AI that really works.


(Tele-driver sits in front of multiple screens tele-driving)

Tele-driving typically involves a driver operating a car while sitting in front of a bank of screens that show video feeds from cameras on the car, as well as sensors and augmented reality technology. Once a passenger has been picked up, transported and dropped off, the driver can disconnect from that vehicle and is free to connect to any other that is available in an area of need. Several private tele-driving companies are already in operation, including halo.car and Vay in Las Vegas.

[Xiaotang Yang, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management says] “By using tele-driving, platforms can potentially operate with fewer drivers while maintaining or even improving service quality, which can lower operational costs and make these services more accessible. Additionally, this approach can help reduce traffic congestion and waiting times, leading to a better overall experience for users.”

(Via University of Michigan.)

Somewhat ominously "...tele-driving systems also need to guard against reckless driving in a work environment that feels more like a video game."

In his 2007 novel Halting State, science fiction author Charles Stross describes driverless drones shepherded remotely:

The steering wheel twitches hesitantly, then as the doors click shut it spins hard over and the yuppiemobile accelerates fast. You try not to shudder. You hate the whole idea that some bored drone pusher in a remote driving centre has got your life - and half a dozen other lives - in his hands.

Update 01-Aug-2024: I realized that this is also a good illustration of the telepresence bulldozer I read about forty years ago in Oath of Fealty, by Jerry Pournelle (w/L. Niven), published by Timescape in 1981. End update.

Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 7/24/2024)

Follow this kind of news @Technovelgy.

| Email | RSS | Blog It | Stumble | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit |

Would you like to contribute a story tip? It's easy:
Get the URL of the story, and the related sf author, and add it here.

Comment/Join discussion ( 0 )

Related News Stories - (" Vehicle ")

Leader-Follower Autonomous Vehicle Technology
'Jason had been guiding the caravan of cars as usual...' - Gordon R. Dickson, 1954.

Inmotion Electric Unicycle In Combat
'It is about the size and shape of a kitchen stool, gyro-stabilized...' - Robert Heinlein, 1940.

Congress Considers Automatic Emergency Braking, One Hundred Years Too Late
'The greatest problem of all was the elimination of the human element of braking together with its inevitable time lag.' - Bernhard Brown, 1934.

The 'Last Mile' In China Crowded With Delivery Robots
Yes, it's a delivery robot. On wheels.

 

Google
  Web TechNovelgy.com   

Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.

 

 

 

 

Science Fiction Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's   1950's
1960's   1970's
1980's   1990's
2000's   2010's

Current News

Grok And The City Fathers From 'Cities In Flight' By James Blish
'Chris, the City Fathers are not interested in your welfare; I suppose you know that. They're interested in only one thing: the survival of the city.'

Why Not Move A Warehouse District?
'Did you never see a moving house before?'

Will An AI Found A New Religion?
'You must decide how you will worship Me.'

Terraformer Industries Make Methane
'Drake was the young spatial engineer he employed to terraform the little rock...'

I Need An Outdoor Spherical Display
'Usually a spherical display hovered in the centre...'

Worm Disrupts Physics Simulations Undetected For A Decade
'It diverts integers of the data, the fundamental message-units, so that they no longer agree.'

Muxcard Redditor's DIY Credit Card-Sized Computer
It's a computer, but just barely.

'Soft Assembly' Fashions That Fashion Themselves On The Wearer
'Clothes are no longer made from dead fibers of fixed color and texture that can approximate only crudely to the vagrant human figure...'

Orwell's Nightmare Of AI-Written Novels Comes To Pass
'Books were just a commodity that had to be produced, like jam or bootlaces.'

ISS Plagued By Leak - Again!
'There were perhaps a dozen bladder-like objects in the tunnel...'

Ridiculous 'Ghost Murmur' Tech Still Science Fiction
'...it rears and spreads its fan. It can pick one man out of a crowd.'

Outdoor Video Screens Can Be Arbitrarily Large
The Shape of Things To Come

Infrared Contact Lenses To See In The Dark
'I can see in the dark, Case.'

What'll You Have? Extinct Animals Returned, Or Synthetic Eggshells?
'...a new plastic with the characteristics of an avian eggshell.'

Sunbird Pulsar Fusion Like Leinster's Space Tug
'It was a pushpot, which could not possibly be called a jet plane because it could not possibly fly. Only it did.'

RentAHuman App Lets AI Agents Hire Humans
'She wouldn't stop until Antar had told her everything he knew about whatever it was that she was playing with on her screen.'

More SF in the News Stories

More Beyond Technovelgy science news stories

Home | Glossary | Invention Timeline | Category | New | Contact Us | FAQ | Advertise |
Technovelgy.com - where science meets fiction™

Copyright© Technovelgy LLC; all rights reserved.