Appreciate Your Uber Drivers Now, as Robots Will Soon Take Over

Appreciate Your Uber Drivers Now, as Robots Will Soon Take Over

Cherish your⁢ Uber drivers. Soon they ‌will be robots

This column‍ was not written by‌ ChatGPT. But ⁣it did have​ the benefit ⁤of another breathtaking technology that could change ⁤life as we know it. It was partly typed in the back of a Waymo self-driving taxi that, with ghostly serenity,⁢ climbed the hills of San Francisco, through the fog of Twin Peaks (it ⁣was still “Fogust”), around the spaced-out hippies ‍of​ Haight-Ashbury to the Golden⁢ Gate Bridge. Rather than driving into wet concrete, as one of its hapless rivals did recently, it politely gave ‍way to a cement mixer that swerved across⁣ its⁤ path. It was a scenic—and entirely trustworthy—office-on-wheels.

Like ChatGPT, self-driving‌ vehicles are one of those marvels of artificial intelligence (AI) that make you pinch yourself when you encounter them because they seem so strange, and then pinch yourself‌ afterwards ⁣because they become so⁣ familiar. The strangeness is ​quirky rather than scary. ⁤The ‌robotaxi arrives at the tap of an app, with your initials​ quaintly lit up on the laser cone on the roof. You‌ wave at ⁢it to stop,⁢ but⁣ there’s no ‌driver⁢ with⁢ whom to make eye contact, so you run ‌up the​ hill in hot pursuit until it finds a safe spot. Get in and a disembodied voice advises⁢ you that though the ⁢experience ⁢may be “futuristic”, you still have to buckle‍ up. Then the steering wheel gently turns itself, and ‍at ​a speed steady enough that you can use your laptop ⁢without feeling sick, you set off on a journey up ⁤the⁤ foothills of⁢ the AI revolution.

This part of the revolution is not yet ⁢on the breakneck scale of ChatGPT. Self-driving cars are AI in the physical rather than digital⁢ realm, and though‌ it is annoying when chatbots “hallucinate”, any mischief-making by a robotaxi could be fatal. That⁣ is‌ why safety, ⁣not speed, is paramount. ⁢Yet once you ‍become⁣ accustomed to the experience, it is ‍easy to imagine a future‍ where ​more of life is spent⁢ in self-driving taxis; where commuters can work, watch videos⁢ or snooze…

2023-08-31​ 08:03:12
Link from www.economist.com

Exit mobile version