When I was a kid I always imagined in the future there would be a much more intricate mass transportation system than what I grew up with.  In my mind I imagined the future state of our roadways to be more like those in the movie “Minority Report;” Long stretches of magnetized roads that are traveled by multitudes of individual, but not autonomous pods.  The benefits were obvious: fewer accidents, less traffic, faster rates of travel, no oil dependency and more time to do other things during your commute like read or socialize.

This same idea has been dreamt by many and interpreted in many different movies depicting the future.  In fact I think you would be hard pressed to find a movie depicting the future that does not at some point touch on transportation.  Today’s vehicles are taking the first steps into this futuristic world with voice automated systems, all electric engines, self park assist and more.  Now, I know I just wrote a blog about a Google product (Project Glass), but they are taking the next step into bringing the future car to the present. 

The biggest opposition so far seems to be that people enjoy the freedom and exhilaration of driving.  No one buys a nice or classic car to sit in it while a computer drives it.  But, the great thing about the direction the Google system is going is that it can be adapted to any car and you can turn it on or off.  This gives the benefits of driverless transportation while still allowing a user the freedom to drive when they want to.  I don’t care how nice your car is nobody wants to drive in rush hour traffic 😉